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A well-tailored espionage-adventure yarn which fitted the obvious
requirements of the Sunday evening ITV audience and matched the pattern of
previous LWT Christie models. First published in 1922, and one of the earliest
Christie works to be filmed, with the 1928 German production Die Abenteuer GmbH,
The Secret Adversary introduced two of her lesser-known sleuths, Tommy and
Tuppence. They featured in only four books, and the author made them the heroes
of her final mystery story, Postern of Fate, published in 1973.
Somewhat darker in tone and appearance than the previous LWT adaptations, and
more atmospheric than the succeeding 10-episode series (Agatha Christie's
Partners in Crime, 1983-84), the story scrambled merrily along through its
mystery and suspicion-drenched atmosphere like its earnest young detective
couple, involving half a dozen running engagements with the villains and a final
unmasking of the elusive spy network mastermind.
Although the multifaceted, but fairly coherent plot - hinging on a missing
treaty which, in the wrong hands, would mean the fall of the government and Red
revolution - was largely formula, Pat Sandys' adaptation remains fairly lively
and Tony Wharmby's direction often displayed imagination, particularly in the
use of chiaroscuro effects.
As is usual of television's period-set Christie thrillers (this one is
located in 1919), the story is seldom very plausible: coincidence reaches out
with a long arm, and the developments and the solution have their vague aspects.
Christie seems impatient with the intricacies of espionage, and her
attitude to human nature appears, as usual, formidably pessimistic.
With the exception of the leading duo and the zestful American go-getter
Hersheimmer, played by Gavan O'Herlihy in youthful Cary Grant mode, the
characters are essentially subordinate to the action. The character drawing for
this type of drama was fair, however: George Baker, as the shadowy Whittington,
plays with rather jaded competence; Peter Barkworth's dry authority creates a
convincing secret service chief; Honor Blackman, required to switch from
professional hardness to sweet purity, makes the change none too convincingly;
and Alec McCowen, immaculate and stiff, delivers a rather sombre performance as
the duplicitous Sir James Peel Edgerton. Yet somehow, LWT, having
found the Christie flavour, were in danger of losing the taste by treating their
already fascinating blend to overdoses of unnecessary
seriousness.
Tise Vahimagi
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1. The papers (2:15)
