Daisy Ridley to star in The Christie Affair as Agatha Christie's husband's mistress

Rather than simply appear in films based on the works of Dame Agatha Christie—like 2017's Murder On The Orient Express—Daisy Ridley is apparently gearing up to appear in a story about the life of the Dame herself. This is per Deadline, which reports that Ridley has signed on to star in a TV show built around one of the most famous periods of the celebrated mystery writer’s career: The 11-day period in 1926 in which she “disappeared,” sparking a national investigation into the whereabouts of the beloved author.

As the title of Ridley’s new show, The Christie Affair, alludes, Christie’s disappearance coincided with the revelation that her first husband had been cheating on her, and now wanted a divorce. (She was eventually discovered to have been staying in a spa hotel under the same last name as her husband’s mistress; doctors later diagnosed her with genuine amnesia about the events of the missing period.) The show takes those ideas and runs with them, telling the story of the period through the eyes of the mistress herself, now reimagined as “Nan O’Dea,” and played by Ridley. (No word on who will be playing Christie—although Vanessa Redgrave played her in 1979's Agatha, which took the same incident as it source material.)

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The Christie Affair is being developed from the best-selling novel of the same name, released earlier this year by author Nina de Gramont. Calendar Girls and The Essex Serpent writer Juliette Towhidi is adapting the script from the well-received novel, which received plenty of plaudits for its blend of historical fiction and the sorts of intrigue, jealousies, and passions that often peppered Christie’s own work.

Ridley last appeared on screen in Netflix’s The Bubble; before that, she was mostly occupied with her Star Wars duties. This will be her first starring role in a TV series. She’ll also executive produce on the show.

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