Agatha Christie's Seven Dials turns a mediocre novel into an engaging miniseries

Agatha Christie introduced the world to memorable fictional detectives like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, who went on to appear in plenty of TV and film adaptations over the decades. And then there’s Superintendent Battle, a not as prolific yet wise police officer from five of her books who has a limited onscreen presence. (The character was entirely cut from BritBox’s Towards Zero, for example.) He pops up in Netflix’s Seven Dials—and is played quite well by a straight-faced and smooth-talking Martin Freeman—but Battle still isn’t the real star here. That distinction goes to the plucky young Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent (Mia McKenna-Bruce, a BAFTA winner for How To Have Sex), whose burgeoning sleuthing skills prove useful when her friend/crush is killed in her stately home. In tracking Bundle’s investigation into the crime and, eventually, an unexpected conspiracy, Seven Dials delivers an engaging drama that stays mostly faithful to its source material. 

The three-episode show, which was written by Broadchurch‘s Chris Chibnall and directed by Chris Sweeney (The Tourist), is in line with the mediocre 1929 novel. That is, the moments of genuine intrigue and surprise are infrequently bogged down by a complicated narrative that threatens to spiral out of control. The Seven Dials Mystery is far from Christie’s strongest work, after all. In it, she experimented beyond the smaller scale, locked-room murder-mystery formula and ventured deeper into the spy fiction genre to lukewarm results. Her usual ingredients of shady suspects, unreliable narrators, and red herrings took a backseat to make room for subterfuge, secret societies, and the politics of the Roaring Twenties. Thankfully, the series’ expeditious pace and charming British ensemble, as well as Sarah Hauldron’s fine production design, keep things entertaining even when the case itself isn’t. 

The action kicks off when the body of Foreign Office employee Gerry Wade (Queen Charlotte‘s Corey Mylchreest, who keeps dying in Netflix projects) is discovered the morning after a glamorous shindig at Bundle’s manor. Bundle is heartbroken because she and Gerry (who was an old pal of her dead brother) clearly had the hots for each other. They made plans to go on a date and everything, so she’s convinced he didn’t kill himself and that foul play was involved, even though the cops say otherwise. Bundle begins to probe into what made Gerry a target, sharpening her deduction skills and intuition along the way. This leads her to an exclusive club called the Seven Dials. The more she digs into it, the more danger she brings to herself and those she ropes into the investigation, like Nabhaan Rizwaan’s Ronnie Deveraux and Hughie O’Donnell’s Bill Eversleigh, two other Foreign Office employees who could suffer dire consequences. 

One big change in this screen adaptation is that instead of being raised by her father, Bundle is brought up by the amusing Lady Caterham (Helena Bonham Carter, channeling a version of her Enola Holmes character). Their tight-knit mother-daughter relationship and witty banter become the heart of Seven Dials. The remaining cast is solid, too, particularly Edward Bluemel (as Bundle’s friend) and Alex Macqueen (as a top-level Foreign Office agent whose home becomes vital to the investigation). A huge chunk of the show is dedicated to how Bundle’s not-so-discreet agenda catches the eye of Superintendent Battle. He warns her to stay away from the Seven Dials chaos, but remains equally impressed that she never follows the rules or his advice because she trusts her own instincts. This back-and-forth turns into a fun mentor-mentee dynamic that gives the series a leg up. 

It’s too bad that the actual details of the case get a little too labyrinthine by the end. As the title suggests, clocks are very much involved. Brace yourself for consistent ticking sounds throughout to remind you that Bundle has little time left to figure out why Gerry was killed before more people start to die. She gradually finds herself in the same room with a lot of powerful folks, all of whom want access to a game-changing invention by Dr. Matip (Nyasha Hatendi). The chase for this creation quickly turns fatal, tying back into Gerry’s murder as well as a framing that could have global effects.

Chibnall does a decent job of bringing all of Seven Dials’ conspiracies to life, instituting some changes that attempt to add more gravitas to the suspense. He doesn’t necessarily pull it off, but the endeavor is worthy if only for McKenna-Bruce’s take on this intrepid character. Christie created a delightful protagonist in Bundle, who debuted in the 1925 book The Secret Of Chimneys, only to never continue her story after Seven Dials. While this Netflix miniseries gets a satisfying end, the door has been left open to hopefully explore more of her adventures.  

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic. Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials premieres January 15 on Netflix.    

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