This is put down to a snake bite but it soon becomes apparent that something is afoot. This is the second film produced by Darlow Smithson Productions for British television that purports to tell a missing story in the life of Agatha Christie. External Reviews It's stylish and funny with great performances and a sense of scale and history. Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar is a 2019 British alternative history television drama film about crime writer Agatha Christie becoming embroiled in a real-life murder case during a trip to an archaeological dig in Iraq following her divorce. The couple fell into a sweetly hesitant love affair and, despite the 14-year age gap, would later marry happily in real life. I am normally cast in contemporary drama, so it was a treat. Her fictional works are do much more interesting than this. If Agatha Christie is involved, that would appear highly unlikely. This is probably the dullest Agatha Christie related movie that I have ever seen. What the hell does that mean? Christie contentedly called them “companion dogs”, which always struck me as rather lovely. Published from its offices at 200 Renfield Street Glasgow and printed in Scotland by Newsquest (Herald & Times) a division of Newsquest Media Group Ltd, registered in England & Wales with number 01676637 at Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe HP10 9TY – a Gannett company. | Sign up for news on Education events for students. A dead pet monkey is found hanging from a noose. Christie would later acquire her own expertise by working in a hospital pharmacy during the Second World War, putting her knowledge to good use in her later novels. *1/2 out of 4. User Ratings There are brief images of dead bodies, as well as a mildly bloodied severed hand, in the aftermath of off-screen murders. Such anachronisms were offset by plentiful playful references to Christie’s life and works. Even a pet ape was murdered. She is selling the novel of Poirot’s death to a private buyer, a superfan who will pay a fortune to own a piece of history and keep the beloved detective alive. Approved Running time 96m 27s . Basically, it's a third rate amateur sleuth tale which only retired person with a lot of free time might like. The story is beautiful the directing is bad. Filming took place in Malta and was directed by Sam Yates Agatha Christmas, more like. Working out whodunit turned into the usual country house parlour game, only this time relocated to a stucco-walled colonial lodge. Share on Facebook; Share on Twitter ; Share on Pinterest; Share on Reddit; Email to a friend; Summary. Considering the success of her novels, she should be a rich woman, but instead, she is struggling to make ends meet. Talk about a busman’s holiday. In another comic scene a man explains a creation story in which a god “came”, producing a “river of semen”. This Agatha journeyed east on the Orient Express, which doubtless inspired another idea, and ultimately decided to publish her passionate prose under the pen name Mary Westmacott, under which Christie really did release romantic novels. This, the second story to imagine authoress Agatha Christie to be caught up in a murder mystery of her own, sees her travelling to Iraq to stay with friends at an archaeological dig.