Lots of dramas being churned out about Agatha Christie, as well as her books being remade over and this one delved into an aspect of the writer's personal life after her divorce and meeting her second husband, Max Mallowan. A rather comical tale which had her wanting romance, not for the romance factor per se, but rather for research. Romance not to be equated with sex, as Katherine Woolley (Katherine Kingsley) tells her, not it's different, but romance still being a precursor to sex, right. Katherine suggests Agatha (Lyndsey Marshal) should visit their (her husband Leonard's (Jack Deam) dig in Iraq when she can't get anywhere with her romance story. Which she finally decides to do but still wants her male publishers to publish the 'romance' book when it's completed. Not too impressed, they're more interested in the Belgian detective and his little grey cells solving mysteries. The publishers wouldn't be too impressed with her, 'cutting off and feeding it' joke either in the beginning.
Finally she travels to Iraq and after the train not being able to go all the way as the conductor tells her, the earth has been sick. She finally arrives at the dig site only to find a man who's been shot and she drives him for help, though only after she drives over him twice, his leg to be precise. She draws in a pad for help and the concierge who speaks English, not that she notices, sends for the doctor and tells the boy she's a mute. The doctor tells her next time she should use a bigger gun since the bullet missed the bone in his head. That was the beginnings of this comedy.
Finding out that when the tomb was opened a man was found dead inside. When she arrives at the house of her guests, the Leonard's, she stumbles upon a hanged monkey belonging to Katherine. Thus the mystery ensues, Max (Jonah Hauer-King) the shot man is also an archaeologist too. Leading to plenty of digs and not just of the excavating variety.
More an allusion to one of the Poirot stories, set in Mesopotamia, or thereabouts, such as Appointment With Death for example, and how Agatha could have come up with that plot, but probably didn't. As dinner is served, the suspects gather, Lord Marmaduke Ponsonby (Rory Fleck Byrne) Lucy (Bronagh Waugh) strangely Pearl (Crystal Clarke) wasn't present at dinner as she was meant to be Katherine's companion; but was relegated to a "dog's body". Some digs at men and how they don't listen to women, much less think they can be intelligent, as Pearl has a doctorate too. Agatha sends a telegram to Conan Doyle who suggests she perform an autopsy on the monkey's liver to ascertain cause of death. Though neither she nor Max know where the liver is or what it looks like. Eventually she removes it herself after some bungling from Max, so much for being an archaeologist and adds some chemicals to find the monkey was poisoned and most likely drank the strychnine, which could have also been used on the dead man in the beginning.
Plodding on and investigating Agatha finds from Sir Constance (Stanley Townsend) that his wife Lucy who is younger than him and is 24 is having an affair with someone younger too. But she doesn't figure out who that is. Enlisting Max's help in investigating she finally learns who the suspects are, to cross off the list. As well as being enamoured with Max to the point of having sex, so much for romance. Rudely interrupted by an explosion. She tells him she didn't want that, apologizes when he says she used him for sex. And so she uses again when she tells him that she wants him.
Eventually working out who the murderer is, yes it was obvious, she solves the mystery, writes two books, one a 'romance' and gets the man too. Had its ups and downs in this but it was watchable, if only it wasn't riddled with ad breaks almost every ten minutes. Shows Christie is still popular, even with lots of author name droppings such as Bernard Shaw, Conan Doyle, as mentioned. Well, curses, this could've been much better than the end result...
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