
Today Britbox released the miniseries
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? The story follows Bobby Jones (Will Poulter) and Lady Frankie Derwent (Lucy Boynton) who become amateur sleuths looking to solve a murder and find the meaning behind the victim’s mysterious last words. The three-episode series is based on the Agatha Christie mystery, with a script by Hugh Laurie, who also directs and executive produces, as well as plays the role of Dr. James Nicholson.
Last week, SciFi Vision talked to Laurie during a press conference with the three performers to promote the adaptation about the difficulties choosing what parts to draw from the original vs adding his own ideas to the story. “That's a tricky one,” said Laurie. “I suppose you just have a sort of instinct that, oh, no, that's not going to work here. Something else needs to happen. We need some other ingredient here that you can't really explain why it is; you just feel it. Sometimes I feel when writing I am sort of partially acting as a reader, just reading rather than writing, and when acting, I feel like I'm watching as much as acting…As a reader, or as a viewer, you just get a sense of, I need something different to happen here. I need some surprise, or I need some alteration of energy or pace or something. And as far as I know, there's no great theory to it. Or if there is, I didn't know what the theory is…I think it's just a sort of an instinct…just sort of a rhythmic thing.”