Queen of mystery

I bring news of another two-part BBC programme. But relax, this one is unlikely to trigger another ‘survey’ of the corporation’s offices in India by tax authorities. But the programme does have an India connect. For the first time, a major adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel, Murder is Easy, is to be directed by an Indian director. Calcutta-born Meenu Gaur, who lives in London, is best known for co-directing Zinda Bhaag, which was Pakistan’s submission to the Oscars in 2013 in the foreign language category. The film, starring Naseeruddin Shah, won many prizes and is about three Pakistani lads who dream of smuggling themselves into the west. In Murder is Easy, written in 1939, Luke Fitzwilliam, a retired police officer returning to England from the Far East, meets an elderly lady, Lavinia Pinkerton, on a train. She tells him that she is on her way to Scotland Yard to relay her suspicions that a serial killer is on the loose in the village of Wychwood under Ashe and that after the murders of Amy Gibbs, Tommy Pierce and Harry Carter, the next victim is to be a John Humbleby. When Fitzwilliam reads in the papers that Miss Pinkerton has been knocked over by a car when crossing the road in Whitehall and finds Humbleby’s obituary notice, his instincts tell him to go to the village, which he does disguised as an author. Filming will begin in Scotland in the summer. Gaur said: “I am part of the worldwide club of Agatha Christie’s fans and followers and therefore thrilled to be shaping one of her works for the screen. I was drawn to the sassy, cool, witty, and not to be messed with women of Murder is Easy and blown away again by how delightful her characters are.”

Graveyard stint

When the Hollywood actress, Raquel Welch, died recently at the age of 82, the papers noted that she became a sex symbol after playing a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 film, One Million Years BC. The news made me look up my theatre programme from 1995, when I went to the Yvonne Arnold Theatre in Guildford to see a stage adaptation of Bernard Shaw’s 1936 play, The Millionairess, in which Welch played a whimsical heiress. Cast opposite her as ‘The Doctor’ was India’s hugely talented Roshan Seth, who didn’t much care for either the production or the venue. Alas, the play’s hoped-for transfer to London’s West End did not happen after it was killed off by critics. One of them, Peter Guttridge, wrote in The Independent: “To men of a certain generation — my generation — Raquel Welch in the Sixties was the stuff of adolescent fantasies. Although she never did nude or even topless scenes, her statuesque figure was her fortune... But now, not only does she want to be taken seriously as an actress, she wants to do it in the theatre, graveyard of many a movie actor’s career.”

Royal ally

Rishi Sunak is being praised for coming to an agreement with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, that might bring peace after the upheavals caused by Boris Johnson’s Northern Ireland Protocol. The amicable talks between Rishi and Ursula took place at the luxurious Fairmont Windsor Park, a beautiful hotel set in the English countryside where history and iconic elegance merge to create an outstanding destination. The Fairmont is owned by a friend, Surinder Arora, who said modestly when I rang him, “We were just part of the team.” His Fairmont is set in expansive grounds near Windsor Castle, where King Charles ‘sweetened’ von der Leyen by offering her tea. It provoked some commentators to complain that the prime minister had dragged the king into politics. Personally, I think the king likes Rishi and was more than happy to lend him a helping hand. When the king appointed Rishi, it was with a box of Diwali mithai.

Disarming humour

When I first wrote about Shazia Mirza, “Britain’s first stand-up Muslim comedian” in the Daily Telegraph, my news editor shook his head and said, “Amit, you can’t say that — it’s racist.” It was just after 9/11, when Shazia came onto the stage at the Hackney Empire wearing a hijab and said, “My name’s Shazia Mirza — at least that’s what it says on my pilot’s licence.” A few years later as Shazia set off for a gig in Bengaluru, my news editor had changed his mind: “Amit, don’t forget to put that joke in.” Shazia, 45, and her father, Muhammad Mirza, 83, have just done “Relative Values” interviews in the Sunday Times. Shazia revealed: “My father... brought cricket bats back from Pakistan and then used them to hit us... For me, it was a very unhappy house to grow up in.”

Footnote

The Nepali-British actress, Amita Suman, billed as “the breakout star of cult fantasy series, Shadow and Bone” on Netflix, has made it to the cover of Tatler, the glossy magazine aimed at English aristocracy. Amita’s father shifted to Britain with Amita and her younger sister after marrying an English visitor to Nepal. For Amita, born in Bhedihari in 1997, “life in Nepal was hand to mouth,” says Tatler, which finds her exotic enough to merit eight very glamorous pictures and a gushing write-up.