'Tommy & Tuppence' Will Become Modern Partners in Crime for BritBox

It is accepted conventional wisdom that Agatha Christie has three major sleuths in her canon: Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, and Tommy & Tuppence Beresford. Poirot and Marple are obvious candidates, as both appear in upwards of dozens of novels and short stories; however, Tommy & Tuppence's popularity is really only due to their being a pair of bright young things, allowing productions to cast attractive young leads in TV adaptations, instead of a short dude with a funny mustache or a little old lady. Now the couple is being brought back for a third series, reset in the present day and renamed from the traditional Partners in Crime to Tommy & Tuppence.

The Beresford couple would be a small artifact in the Christie universe if one were to go by on-page appearances. Poor Mr Satterthwaite and Parker Pyne, heroes of more than a dozen short stories, are barely known outside the hardcore fandom; the same goes for Superintendent Battle, who has six novels to Tommy & Tuppence's five, and yet is unknown because everyone always cuts him out of the on-screen adaptations of his own stories. (Rude!)

However, Satterthwaite, Pyne, and Battle have never led a serialized Christie adaptation. Tommy & Tuppence have been on PBS since the 1980s, first portrayed by James Warwick (Babylon 5) and Francesca Annis (The Forsytes) in Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime, and then by David Walliams (Great Expectations) and Jessica Raine (Call the Midwife) in the 2010s.

(Fun fact: The short-lived 2010s Partners in Crime is the show Raine left Call the Midwife to star in.)

So, how will the new Tommy & Tuppence compare to the two previous versions? Well, for one thing, the two won't be struggling to make ends meet in 1925. They'll be struggling to make ends meet in 2025, which in many ways isn't so different from where things were a century ago. Check out the current logline:

The new series will reimagine Tommy and Tuppence Beresford in the modern world, more than a century after they first appeared together in Christie’s The Secret Adversary. In the first contemporary English language television series adaptation of Agatha Christie’s stories, Tommy and Tuppence are a detective duo for the ages. They fall in love, fall out of it, and tumble back in, all while solving some thrilling, entertaining mysteries along the way. 

The series has only just been greenlit, so the titular couple has not been cast as yet, let alone anyone else. However, with filming planned to start in the latter half of 2025, in and around Hampstead in north London, those announcements are expected sooner rather than later.

Phoebe Eclair-Powell will pen all six episodes, marking her first series commission for television. As part of the press release, she said this was a “dream come true” for a Christie superfan. “Christie’s detective duo are witty, sharp and raring to solve lots and lots of murders whilst asking if they should really be more than just partners in crime.”

BritBox is teaming up with Lookout Point and Agatha Christie Limited, with Robert Schildhouse, Jon Farrar & Stephen Nye executive producing for BritBox, Laura Lankester, Katie Draper & Louise Mutter for Lookout Point, and James Prichard for Agatha Christie Limited.

Tommy & Tuppence is expected to debut on BritBox sometime in 2026.