The Telegraph David and Victoria Beckham ‘inspired’ BBC’s new Agatha Christie series
Victoria and David Beckham provided the inspiration for the BBC’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation, its makers have said.
Towards Zero features a famous sportsman and his wife, whose marriage has come under the microscope during a sensational divorce case in which he confesses to an affair.
The makers of the BBC One series said they had drawn parallels between the fictional couple and the Beckhams.
“We were in development at the time the David Beckham documentary came out, and we did a lot of talking about that,” said Rebecca Durbin, the drama’s producer, citing “the excitement, the celebrity, the craziness” that surrounds the Beckhams.
The drama’s director, Sam Yates, joked that using the Beckhams as inspiration was “incredibly lowbrow”.
The Beckhams have denied rumours over the years of a pending divorce and remain happily married.
In the Netflix documentary, they make oblique reference to claims that David had an affair with his personal assistant Rebecca Loos while he was playing for Real Madrid.
Towards Zero is based on Christie’s 1944 murder mystery.
It stars Oliver Jackson-Cohen as tennis star Nevile Strange, Mimi Keene as his new wife, Kay, and Ella Lily Hyland as his ex-wife, Audrey.
The trio are drawn into uneasy proximity during a stay at the home of Nevile’s aunt, Lady Tressilian, who is played by Angelica Huston.
Durbin said that the adaptation would put the sex into Christie. “We talked a lot about sexy Christie,” she said at the drama’s launch. “The situations are so modern.
“Lucy Worsley [in her biography of Christie] talks a little bit about Agatha and her modern attitudes towards sex and female desire, and that was something we took into account.”
The cast was also asked to read Erotic Vagrancy, Roger Lewis’s book about the passionate affair between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, as additional preparation.
James Prichard, the author’s great-grandson and chief executive of her estate, said: “These are modern shows. They’re grown-up shows. I think it’s an incredibly powerful moment. And on that basis, I am comfortable with it. It’s fairly in-your-face but… it’s a crucial part of the show.”
