Agatha Christie: Twelve Radio Mysteries

12 BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatizations of short stories by the Queen of Crime. First broadcast in the early 2000s, the stories were adapted and brought up-to-date for a contemporary audience. The stories are ''Philomel Cottage;" "Swan Song;" "Magnolia Blossom;" "Witness for the Prosecution;"' "The Gates of Baghdad;" "The Hounds of Death;" "In a Glass Darkly;" "The Dressmaker's Doll;" 'The Case of the Perfect Carer"; "The £1999 Adventure;" "The Gypsy;" and "The Last Seance." Duration: 6 hours approximately.

Agatha Christie, the acknowledged "Queen of Detective Fiction" (The Observer) was born in Torquay in 1890. \Her first novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced Hercule Poirot to the world, and it was followed over the next six years by four more detective novels and a short story collection. However, it was not until the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd that Agatha Christie’s reputation was established. In 1930 the sharp-witted spinster sleuth Miss Marple made her first appearance in Murder at the Vicarage. In all, Agatha Christie published 80 crime novels and short story collections. Christie was awarded a CBE in 1956 and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. She died in 1976.