Film, TV or Theatrical Adaptations
The novel was adapted for ITV in 1996 in a one-hour-forty-minute TV movie with Colin Buchanan as Mark Easterbrook. This version omitted the character of Ariadne Oliver. It implausibly tries to make Easterbrook the suspect in the killing of Father Gorman. At first it seems that the murders are masterminded by Venables, who it transpires is not disabled, but ultimately Osbourne is still revealed as the murderer.
The novel was adapted again, this time by Russell Lewis for the fifth series of ITV's Agatha Christie's Marple starring Julia McKenzie in 2010. This version adds the character of Miss Marple as the chief sleuth of the plot, and eliminates the characters of Ariadne Oliver, Colonel Despard, Rhoda, and Mrs Dane Calthrop. (The omission of Rhoda and Colonel Despard is probably due to the fact that in the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaption of Cards on the Table, Rhoda dies in place of Anne Meredith and Colonel Despard falls in love with Anne instead.) It also introduced the newly invented characters of Captain Cottam, Kanga Cottam, and Lydia Harsnet.
Read more about this topic: The Pale Horse
Famous quotes containing the word theatrical:
“A Man who always acts in the Severity of Wisdom, or the Haughtiness of Quality, seems to move in a personated Part: It looks too Constrained and Theatrical for a Man to be always in that Character which distinguishes him from others.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)