BBC viewers were left stunned by a ‘filthy’ scene in the broadcaster’s latest Agatha Christie adaption Towards Zero on Sunday evening.
The second episode of the series saw hunky Neville Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) romp with his ex- wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland).
In the steamiest ever moment from any Christie adaption, he cornered her on a staircase and lifted her onto his shoulders and put his head up her skirt to perform oral sex.
The moment was caught by horrofied wife Kay (Mimi Keene) while viewers were equally disturbed by less than family friendly exchange.
Taking to X they wrote: ‘B****y hell, on the staircase (watching with my parents)’: ‘Well that mid stair ******** will be known in our house henceforth as “having your cake and eating it”. Miss Marple will be clutching her pearl necklace at the very thought’.
‘Caught up with Towards Zero. Agree with the mass thumbs down, though wasn’t hugely surprised – the BBC adaptions go out of their to be unlike ITV ones. Agatha Christine’s genius mixed glamour, observation and intrigue. Not grumpy faces and oral sex halfway up the stairs’.
BBC viewers were left stunned by a ‘filthy’ scene in the broadcaster’s latest Agatha Christie adaption Towards Zero on Sunday evening
The second episode of the series saw hunky Neville Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) romp with his ex- wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland)
However despite the raunchy scenes fans were still unimpressed and branded the show ‘boring’ and moaned the whodunit was lacking a murder.
Writing: ‘Are we gonna get a murder in tonight’s Towards Zero’: ‘So flipping slow, any chance of the murder happening soon’: Christ this Towards Zero programme is slow! 2 episodes in and not a whiff of a slaughter in sight. The ITV Marple version was much better than this stylistic but ultimately staid adaption’.
It comes after viewers criticised the new adaptation 1944 novel Towards Zero and confessed they found a key point of the adaptation ‘distracting’, complaining that the cast were wearing ‘too much makeup’ and even declaring that ‘that there was no lip fillers back then.’
The murder mystery is based on a lesser known book from the crime writer, and follows a recently divorced British tennis player holidaying at his aristocratic aunt’s house in Devon in the 1930s.
The three-part adaptation by Rachel Bennette has also been slammed as ‘woke’ by some viewers, who have hit out the colour-blind casting, with some comparing the drama to Netflix period drama Bridgerton, renowned for its diverse cast.
‘BBC has been touting ‘Towards Zero’ for weeks, so at the appointed hour, OH&I turn on & find it’s been rescheduled… mercifully, we saw it all. It’s been Bridgertoned, fostering the charming fiction that 1930s England was a paradise of racial tolerance & inclusivity. It wasn’t,’ wrote one fan on X, previously known as Twitter.
‘Thought I’d give the new BBC drama a shot this evening. Towards Zero. Set in the 20s/30s? An awful lot of wokery on display from the start,’ another agreed.
‘Watching Towards Zero. I didn’t think it was possible to screw up an Agatha Christie adaptation, but 20 minutes in, and they seem to be making a real hash of it. What a waste of a cast, decent settings, and a classic story.’
In the steamiest ever moment from any Christie adaption, he cornered her on a staircase and lifted her onto his shoulders and put his head up her skirt to perform oral sex
The murder mystery is based on a lesser known book from the crime writer, and follows a recently divorced British tennis player holidaying at his aristocratic aunt’s house in the 1930s
The moment was caught by horrofied wife Kay (Mimi Keene) while viewers were equally disturbed by less than family friendly exchange
However despite the raunchy scenes fans were still unimpressed and branded the show ‘boring’ and moaned the whodunit was lacking a murder
‘@BBCOne we’ve just binged watched Towards Zero. What a disappointment. Dismal cast, wooden acting and the absolute worst adaptation we’ve ever seen of an Agatha Christie novel. Awful, awful,awful. A waste of 3 hours and the licence fee tbh.’
‘I see the BBC is stretching credulity yet again with the casting in its latest Agatha Christie dramatisation. Not to mention inexplicably shooting it in vestigial gloom.’
Other though simply complained about the lack of action with one viewer musing: ‘I’m not bothered about period make up and I’m not bothered by black actors playing characters (I’m sure this is what people mean by ‘woke’ here), but I need a bit more to happen. #TowardsZero,’ whilst another complained it was ‘Boringly slow’.
Other disagreed adding: ‘Well, *I’m* enjoying #TowardsZero . Clarke Peters, Matthew Rhys, Anjana Vasan, what’s not to like’; ‘Anjelica Huston packs a real punch’; ‘Anjelica Huston is splendid!’
One of the drama’s stars Clarke Peters, who has also appeared on The Wire, has slammed colour-blind casting in factual dramas, arguing it would be ‘absurd’ if Dominic West portrayed Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
He also condemned HarperCollins decision to remove offensive language from Agatha Christie’s novels.
The 72-year-old, who plays wealthy black solicitor Mr Treves in Towards Zero, said that colour blind casting is only acceptable for fiction.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the Guys and Dolls star said: ‘I think you have to really be particular about how you do that [colour blind casting].
‘I wouldn’t want to see Dominic West play Idi Amin for example, and it would be absurd for that to happen.’
Ugandan dictator Amin, notorious for his brutality, was responsible for an estimated 500,000 deaths during his rule from 1971 to 1979.
