A nine-week shoot begins in London this week on Why Didn”t They Ask Evans? starring and directed by Hugh Laurie.

Laurie has also adapted the drama – for delivery to Britbox US – from Agatha Christie”s murder mystery about Bobby Jones and his socialite friend Lady Frances Derwent, who discover the body of a dying man while hunting for a golf ball. With is last breath, the man gasps the cryptic question of the series” title.

Mammoth Screen, the prolific production company with a pedigree in Christie adaptations, is making the series with Agatha Christie Limited; their previous collaborations include The ABC Murders starring John Malkovich, And Then There Were None and The Pale Horse.

When the commission was officially announced, Laurie said: “I loved this book as a nipper and still do. The hairs on the back of my neck haven”t properly settled down from the first time I grasped the beauty of the essential mystery.

“Since then, I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with the characters, and feel immensely honoured to have been given the chance to retell their story in this form. I will wear a tie on set, and give it everything I have.”

Image M McCartney.