Ten Little Niggers

Summary

1959 Associated-Rediffusion production for ITV of Agatha Christie’s mystery play Ten Little Niggers.

Theatre play

Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie [more information]

Play synopsis

'In [Agatha Christie’s1939] novel, ten people are enticed into coming to an island under different pretexts, ... All have been complicit in the death(s) of other human beings but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests are charged with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn, in a manner that seems to parallel the ten deaths in the nursery rhyme... In 1943, Agatha Christie adapted the story for the stage. In the process of doing so, she and the producers agreed that audiences might not flock to such a grim tale and it would not work well dramatically as there would be no one left to tell the tale. Thus, she reworked the ending’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None; accessed 2 August 2014).

Production history

'After a try-out at the Wimbledon Theatre starting on 20 September 1943, the play opened in the West End at the St James’s Theatre on 17 November’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None_(1943_play); accessed 2 August 2014); published London: French 1944.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 13 January 1959

Series

Play of the Week

Channel

ITV

Production company

Associated-Rediffusion (1955-1964)

Credits

Director

Robert Tronson

Playwright

Agatha Christie

Adapted for Television by

Robert Tronson

Sets / Settings

Michael Yates

Cast

Felix Aylmer	Sir Lawrence Wargrave
Laidman Browne	General Mackenzie
John Gabriel	Dr Armstrong
Mary Hinton	Emily Brent
Viola Keats	Mrs Rogers
Harry Locke	Rogers
Norman Mitchell	Narracot
Wensley Pithey	William Blore
Christine Pollon	Vera Claythorne
Michael Scott	Anthony Marston
John Stone	Philip Lombard

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

adaptation of novel; Devon, as theme or setting; mystery

Print sources

Title

TV Times, 9 January 1959 (Magazine)

Linking notes

full-page article, p. 6; listing, p. 29