Agatha Christie superfans were out for blood this evening.
Ordeal By Innocence’s fans quickly realised as the show was coming to its climactic finish that the killer had been changed.
It has been a topic of hot debate about who killed Rachel (played by Anna Chancellor) in the BBC’s short series.
This evening it was revealed that Leo Argyll (Bill Nighy) was the true murderer.
However book-readers were perplexed by the change.
One fan on Twitter wrote: “Never see the point of changing the killer in Christie adaptations – why adapt them at all? #OrdealByInnocence.”
Another added: “Honestly if you’re gonna change the ENTIRE THING then call it something else! Still adored it though but it just wasn’t true to Agatha #OrdealByInnocence.”
Fans of Agatha Christie’s literature would know that the murderer was actually Kirsten (Morven Christie).
In the book Jack Argyll (Anthony Boyle) seduced the middle-aged housekeeper Kirsten into thinking that he was obsessed with her.
This false affection helped him convince her to dive into her office, steal the money and murder Rachel.
He originally planned to get away with this by hitchhiking to town to act as an alibi for his puppet.
However his plan came undone as he was picked up by Dr. Arthur Calgary (Luke Treadaway), who ultimately failed to come forward to the police station in time to save Jack.
Readers even saw the true culprit’s comeuppance, as Jack was sentenced with no alibi, a viable motive, and Rachel’s money on his person, leaving Jack to rot in a prison cell, later dying from pneumonia six months later.
Kirsten also killed Phillip Durrant (Matthew Goode) in the book, after he began poking around for answers once Rachel had been murdered.
What’s more, Jack was portrayed as the son of Kirsten, who convinced her boss Leo to stay around the household to watch him grow.
In the book Jack’s parentage was unknown, leaving him as an unwanted child – which most likely lead him to murder Rachel.
Yet another change was Dr. Arthur’s account on the night of the murder. It was revealed to be a lie in the TV adaptation, but was undoubtedly true in the book, leaving the ending less ambiguous.
This meant that left book version of Calgary didn’t need to be rescued from the asylum, and never suffered a meltdown after his misremembering.
Did you notice the changes from book to television?
Ordeal By Innocence is available on BBC iPlayer now.
