Lyndsey Marshal will play the lead role of crime writer Agatha Christie in the new drama commissioned by Channel 5 and made by Endemol Shine’s DSP. Starring with her will be Jonah Hauer-King (World on Fire, Little Women).

Created by husband and wife team Tom and Emily Dalton Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar (w/t), which will air on Channel 5 in the UK later this year, is currently filming in Malta under the direction of Sam Yates, voted one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow in 2016, named a rising star in The Observer, and featured in GQ Magazine’s Men of the next 25 year.

Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar (w/t) sees author Agatha Christie, bruised from her divorce, travel to the deserts of Iraq in the late 1920’s for an archaeological dig where she unravels a series of mysterious murders.

Lyndsey Marshal (Rome, Hanna, Trespass Against Us) stars as Agatha Christie looking for escape and inspiration for a new literary career, writing romantic fiction instead of the detective novels that have made her a celebrity; Jonah Hauer-King (World on Fire, Little Women) is Max Mallowan a handsome archaeologist determined to win Agatha’s affection despite a 14-year age gap; Stanley Townsend (Informer, The Tunnel) is Sir Constance Bernard a British diplomat in Iraq; Katherine Kingsley (Black Mirror Hated in the nation) is Katharine, the glamorous and charismatic wife of earnest archaeologist Leonard Woolley played by Jack Deam (DCI Banks); Waj Ali (Carnival Row) is Ekeziel, Iraqi head of security at the dig; Rory Fleck Byrne (Harlots) is Marmaduke, the aristocrat funding the Woolley’s excavation and Bronagh Waugh (Unforgotten, The Fall) is Lucy, second wife of Sir Constance Bernard, and in charge of administration for the dig .

Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar (w/t) is written by Tom Dalton (Agatha and the Truth of Murder, The Pharmacist) and directed by Sam Yates (The Hope Rooms and the West End stage production of The Starry Messenger). Carol Harding will produce.

Also commissioned by Channel 5 and filming later this year, Agatha and the Death of X (w/t) is set in the Blitz in 1940’s London, as the author decides she must kill off her most famous creation, and in doing so, becomes a target herself…

Agatha and the Truth of Murder, which aired on Channel 5 in 2018, has already sold to more than 139 territories. Kew Media Distribution has international global rights to the two new films. All three Agatha films originate from writer Tom Dalton and DSP (part of the Endemol Shine Group).