BBC & BritBox Team Up Agatha Christie & Friends for a Series Based on the Real-Life 'The Detection Club'

Be still my heart! While no one at BritBox has responded to queries about this, Deadline reports that BritBox and the BBC are set to expand their current co-produced line-up of Agatha Christie shows with a brand-new series starring the author herself. The fictional mystery-of-the-week series revolves around a mysterious society of famous crime writers, formed by Christie and her fellow contemporaries, including Dorothy L. Sayers and G.K. Chesterton, where the trio solves real-life crimes that bear a resemblance to those in their novels. The current working title is The Detection Club.

Agatha Christie, who wrote 80 books throughout her life, and whose iconic sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, sit beside Sherlock Holmes in name recognition, needs no introduction. Christie's stories have been adapted for the big and small screens since she began publishing. She handpicked actor Joan Hickson as her Miss Marple, not long before her death, and David Suchet is considered the definitive portrayal of Poirot. (Accept no substitutions or Kenneth Branaghs.) Nor will G.K. Chesterton of Father Brown fame. Chesterton's Father Brown short stories (53 in all) have been a staple of TV since the 1970s, and the current iteration, starring Mark Williams, is entering its 13th season. 

In comparison, Sayers wrote only 12 Lord Peter Wimsey novels and a handful of short stories, not all of which have been adapted for the screen. However, she is the one who started the real-life Detection Club. In reality, it wasn't a crime-solvers group, but a way for mystery authors to connect and "talk shop." Chesterton was not only a member but the group's real-life president. To be a member, an author had to swear not to rely on "Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery Pokery, Coincidence or the Act of God" and "to observe a seemly moderation in the use of Gangs, Conspiracies, Death-Rays, Ghosts, Hypnotism, Trap-Doors, Chinamen, Super-Criminals and Lunatics, and utterly and forever to forswear Mysterious Poisons unknown to Science." Sayers even invented initiation rituals and everything. 

Here's the series' current logline:

Formed nearly 100 years ago, the elusive and exclusive Detection Club met regularly as its members dined and helped each other with technical aspects of their writing. As well as meeting, they also adhered to Knox’s Commandments, which instructed that a reader of their books must always be given a fair chance at guessing the guilty party.

Since BritBox and the BBC have not issued a press release confirming the series yet, there's no cast list; however, who will land the role of Christie is probably the most paramount casting decision. (Getting the role cast is perhaps partly why there hasn't been a formal announcement.) Considering the way BritBox and the BBC have aimed to cast actors in their joint Christie adaptations who are well-known on both sides of the pond, I would expect multiple A-listers for this, much like The Thursday Murder Club.

According to Deadline, locations in the UK’s West Midlands region are currently being scouted with an eye towards filming in the summer of 2026. We'll be keeping a close eye on this one; while the actor or actress who plays Christie will likely be a top priority, the writer and director will also be key here.

The Detection Club would most likely not be out until at least 2027.