Image Upright: | 1.0 |
Director: | Sam Yates |
Starring: | Lyndsey Marshal Jonah Hauer-King Stanley Townsend Jack Deam Katherine Kingsley |
Music: | Oliver Coates |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Language: | English |
Producer: | Tom Dalton Carol Harding |
Editor: | Anna Dick |
Cinematography: | Catherine Goldschmidt |
Runtime: | 95 mins. |
Company: | Darlow Smithson Productions Factual Fiction |
Network: | Channel 5 |
Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar is a 2019 British alternative history television drama film about crime writer Agatha Christie becoming embroiled in a real-life murder case during a trip to an archaeological dig in Iraq following her divorce. The film premiered on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom on 15 December 2019.[1] Filming took place in Malta and was directed by Sam Yates. Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar premiered in the United States on PBS on 18 May 2021.[2]
In 1928, following her divorce and struggling with fame and success, Agatha Christie travels to Iraq and is caught in a web of murder, intrigue and love. Two years after the public drama caused by her 11-day disappearance, Agatha arrives in Baghdad seeking culture and peace. Instead she finds an attractive young archaeologist with a bullet wound; and the famous crime writer must unravel a series of mysterious murders.
The film was created by husband and wife team Tom and Emily Dalton who also created Agatha and the Truth of Murder which was Channel 5's most watched festive programme of 2018.[4] This was shot in Malta, back-to-back with Agatha and the Midnight Murders.
Described as "quite a treat" by Michael Hogan in The Daily Telegraph,[5] The Times wrote that "what it lacked in unexpected twists and depth it made up for in nostalgic comfort-blanketry and good, clean murder".[6]