Brook and Sarah discuss their thoughts on the first episode of the Netflix adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials Mystery (1929). Subscribe to their free newsletter to hear their thoughts on the rest of the series. This episode goes into detail about the book and the series, so be prepared for spoilers if you have not read or watched either.
Discussed and mentioned
The Seven Dials Mystery (1929) Agatha Christie
The Secret at Chimneys (1925) Agatha Christie
Seven Dials (2026) Netflix
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Related episodes
Christie’s Sleuths: Superintendent Battle (published January 23, 2024)
Transcript
This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.
| Sarah | Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah. |
| Brook | And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery. |
| Sarah | Hi Brook. |
| Brook | Hi, Sarah. The Seven Dials Mystery dropped on Netflix. |
| Sarah | That’s right. And so we’re going to talk about it and we’ll talk a little bit about the book. In this episode, listeners can expect some spoilers because we’ll get into some detail about probably the plots of both the book and this show. But today we will just talk about the first episode and listeners who are also subscribers to our newsletter will get our thoughts about episodes two and three. |
| Brook | Yes so go out to our website and subscribe to our free semi-monthly newsletter, The Clued In Chronicle, and we’ll be following up with another episode to break down the rest of this mini-series. |
| Sarah | So, Brook, this is based on Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery, which was published in 1929 and follows up, doesn’t necessarily continue the story of Chimneys, but features a lot of the same characters from The Secret At Chimneys. |
| Brook | Yes. um You know, when you and I were chatting last week, and this project was coming up and you mentioned the word sequel and I went, hmm. And then I really got to think about it. And this is probably one of the most sequel type of stories that Agatha Christie ever did, isn’t it? |
| Sarah | Yeah, I think that’s right. So, you know, we’ve talked before about a lot of the sleuths or primary characters that appear in several stories. um Battle, who’s in um in this and and in Chimneys. Ariadne Oliver, Parker Pyne, you know, we we’ve spoken about a lot of those characters. And of course, Poirot and Miss Marple feature as sleuths in several of her novels. But I can’t, now I haven’t read all of her works, but I can’t think of anything else that features a lot of the same cast in multiple books. |
| Brook | Right. And also the same setting because they’re at this house called Chimneys in both stories. And it’s very interesting to me that this is probably the only time that she maybe was starting a series. But it it as far as I know, just these two books exist. And I’m sure that some of that will play into our conversation today. |
| Sarah | Yeah, I mean, so the book starts at Chimneys, and the and as does the um the show, ah but the book kind of goes all over the place. |
| Brook | This is a good point, Sarah. Yeah, this is ah one of Christie’s more action-adventure mysteries, I guess I would say. So you’re right. Chimneys is just the starting point. |
| Sarah | Yeah. So um as in the book, the show really starts with what appears to be a closed circle mystery, right? |
| Sarah | One of the characters ends up not waking up in the morning. He’s dead. And initially everybody thinks that it is, he’s overdosed on sleeping medication. It’s an accidental death, but, Bundle, Lady Eileen Brent, um is suspicious because in the show, she and the character who dies have made plans for the next week. And she says, why would he have made plans with me if he was planning, if he was either planning to kill himself or, you know, why why would he allow himself to overdose on sleeping medication? |
| Brook | That’s right. and ah i know you And as you said, Sarah, in the show, because in the book, ah Bundle isn’t even in this part of the story. |
| Brook | Her family has lent out their house to this group of friends. They definitely know all these people because, as we said, many of them featured in Chimneys. But ah They’ve lent the house and they are having a party and this death occurs. And Bundle and her family are just off grounds at that point in time. And she doesn’t come back until later. |
| Sarah | So I thought it was really interesting the the different choices that were made here. And um so we have just watched the first episode. We haven’t watched the um the rest of the series. And I kind of like the these changes that they’ve made. It gives her some higher stakes, right? So we have a scene between Bundle and the character who dies, Gerry Wade. ah And there’s this suggestion of perhaps a romance between the two of them that, in fact, is so serious that she thinks he’s about to propose. That’s why he’s asked her to go for dinner the following week is because he’s about to ask her to marry him. |
| Sarah | And so I think the stakes are a lot higher. Of course, she’s interested in finding out what really happened to this man whom she thought she might be spending the rest of her life with. Whereas in the book, the stakes aren’t quite as high. |
| Brook | Yeah, that’s a great observation. And I felt that way too. Like she’s very emotionally invested right from the beginning. I mean, she breaks down, right? She ah cries on the shoulder literally of another of their friend because we can see how distraught she is over this loss. And she’s unwilling to accept that he would do this to himself, uh, |
| Brook | Because they had plans, big plans, potentially. So I would agree. I like this change. ah But I think that it’s going to ripple through because I’m interested in that Gerry Wade and Bundle had a relationship because that is not part of the original story. |
| Sarah | No, no, that’s a really good point, Brook. that there The relationships between the characters are different in the book and in this adaptation. And so, yeah, there’s bound to be some impacts of those choices as we see the rest of the show unfold. |
| Sarah | Another thing we should point out that’s different is that there’s an opening scene to the show that we don’t get in the book where a character dies in a bull ring and only towards the end of the episode do we learn that that character is Bundle’s father. And at the very end, after another character dies, we see others receiving the same card that Bundle’s father did. None of this appears in the book. |
| Brook | Exactly. I was quite honestly a little confused and a little worried when I first saw this bull ring and we’re in Spain. And I thought, oh dear, have they really taken this in a completely different direction? But um it’s very soon clear that this is some sort of different backstory and yeah, we’ll see where that goes. |
| Sarah | Mm-hmm. |
| Sarah | ah Another choice that was made um to change from the original story is ah in the book, I don’t know that Bundle’s mother appears. |
| Sarah | It’s her father that she turns to and and and speaks with. Whereas in the show, it’s her mother that is really the… um the guide in in her in her life. And she’s played very well by Helena Bonham-Carter. |
| Brook | Yes, yes. She’s an amazing actress. I was really excited to see her in the film. I wasn’t sure what part she was going to play. I tried not to learn a lot about it it before our watch along, which we like to do. Um I’m a little disappointed, i won’t lie, because I loved the relationship between Bundle and her dad. Like She was a daddy’s girl, and I think that that relationship really shaped who Bundle is, because she’s fiercely independent. |
| Brook | She’s got like a lot of ah she’ll talk back to people which I don’t think was a ah very common thing in that era especially for someone in her position and and i I feel like when I’m reading the books that that’s largely because that could be largely because she was raised mostly by her male parent, right? She was almost raised like a tomboy. And ah so I miss that relationship, but I do think that this story is very male heavy. |
| Brook | Like there are a lot of male characters, especially in the book. And so I can appreciate why they may have chosen to bring in another woman. And heck, if you can get an actress like Helena Bonham-Carter, then that’s fantastic. |
| Sarah | Yeah. Well, and and she’s certainly portrayed as being a very independent thinker, right? Her mother. um And so i think yeah you’re right. She doesn’t have that. It it is really quite a nice relationship between Bundle and and her father. Although on the page she says some things to him. She’s very dismissive of him, but I think it’s, I think it’s a banter rather than really being dismissive. But I think, you know, in the show, her her mother has that fierce independence and you can see that that’s been passed down to, to Bundle. |
| Brook | While we’re on the topic, let’s talk about the casting, Sarah. ah What did you think about some of the other characters and who they chose to play them? Let’s say Bundle herself. |
| Sarah | Okay. ah So much of the cast, I think, is probably familiar to viewers from the UK, as it looks like a lot of the productions that they’ve been in in the past are from there, um with the exception of a couple of of names that we would recognize. So we mentioned Helena Bonham-Carter and Martin Freeman is playing Superintendent Battle. |
| Sarah | But as you said earlier, Brook, there are a lot of characters in this. |
| Brook | That’s a uh Christie mainstay isn’t it? |
| Sarah | It is. And, and in the book, I found it a little bit difficult to keep track of them. And, you know, what are the relationships between the, between the characters? Uh, I found that a little bit easier because we get to see them in, um, uh, you know, on the screen. Um, but yeah, there’ there there’s just a lot. There’s a lot going on both in the in the adaptation and in the original book. I would say there’s more going on in the book. Like the book is wild. |
| Brook | It is. And I think that they’ve trimmed some people out. Like I’ve already identified, like there there were maybe three or four girls that really play a big part in the initial scheme to put all the clocks in Jerry Wade’s room. And I think they’ve trimmed that down to just the girl that they call socks. And so… |
| Brook | there have been already some choices to make it a little easier on the audience. But that’s just, ah you know, as I said, it’s a thing that we have to deal with and with Christie. And I think that, um I mean, obviously it’s very intentional because it keeps things confusing. |
| Sarah | So what did you think of the casting? |
| Brook | Overall, I think it’s great. Definitely, talented actors, and that’s probably the most important thing in telling a story. ah i The one that I’m a little concerned with, and we’ve only seen a little glimpse of him so far, is Battle. And the reason for this is not anything against Martin Freeman. He’s fantastic. But I just think But visually, and also so far the way that they’re portraying him, is not going to add up to what we know about Superintendent Battle. |
| Brook | You and I did an entire episode on him and learned that, you know, Christy refers to him as a brute, ah square-faced. |
| Sarah | Mm-hmm. |
| Brook | timber of a battleship, which I can assume is where we get battle. And he’s got ah like a big mustache. So we’re talking about this almost like athletic jock of a guy, which doesn’t describe Martin Freeman. |
| Brook | I could get around that, I think. But so far we’ve seen him and he’s been kind of like furtive and like dashing, like tiptoeing almost through the streets. And I’m like, I don’t know, that didn’t say battle to me. So we’ll see where they take it. |
| Sarah | Yeah, I think that’s a great observation, Brook. He he is a little more squirrely, let’s say, than you would expect. Although in in the book, he does he does kind of like pop up unexpectedly. |
| Brook | Yes. Okay. I can get that. But I need a lumbering popping up. |
| Sarah | So i I mentioned that I think the book is wild and that’s because, you know, it starts out as this closed circle mystery and then it kind of turns into this caper and there’s this international you know hint of of international espionage or conspiracy or something else that’s going on um and i in this first episode it didn’t feel quite as frantic. I think it’s i think they’ve they’re either going to build up to something. um i mean, of course I know how the, how the book ends, but like you said, we’ll see, we’ll see if it’s the same for the, for the show. um But it just feels a little bit um better paced or better structured. |
| Brook | Yeah, I would agree with that. ah And part of it might be the focus that we really are going to be seeing the story through Bundle’s point of view. And that happens to an extent in the book, but you have scenes where you’re in private conversations between different players. |
| Brook | And for me personally, i was having difficulty like kind of keeping all the threads straight. So I think that will help. And just being able to see it, as you mentioned before, of like being able to watch the different characters and remember who’s who. |
| Sarah | So Brook, even though I’ve read the the book and there are some departures, after watching this first episode, I I did want to continue watching. I almost sent you a message and said, I think we should watch all of it. |
| Brook | Oh, that would have been so much fun, Sarah. ah Yeah, I agree. I’m ready to go. I think that this is ah really engaging. We didn’t mention before, but I will say like the set of Chimneys is gorgeous. Like they make the house so beautiful. |
| Brook | The whole show kind of has a color scheme, like we’re in these sepia tones, and ah I think that that’s, you know, really drawing me in. So maybe we’ll have to do ah episode two and three marathon. |
| Sarah | Sounds good. And if listeners want to hear our thoughts about that, then like we said at the beginning, they should subscribe to our free newsletter and and they’ll receive a link to hear our final thoughts. |
| Brook | That’s right. Well, thank you, Sarah. This has been so much fun. And thank you, listeners, for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. Until next time, I’m Brook. |
| Sarah | And I’m Sarah, and we both love mystery. |
