TV series based on incredible book sparks fury over 'worst ever' adaptation

Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse remains one of her most beloved piece of literature even 60 years on. Like many fantastic novels before it, The Pale Horse was later turned into a mini series, not once, but twice; though the release in 2020 on Amazon Prime didn't quite impress the masses.

The detective fiction classic, released in November 1961, has an array of incredible reviews, currently holding 4.3/5 stars on Amazon. It follows the death of a Catholic priest after a dying woman gives her last confession to him, providing him with a list of names and an awful secret. But before he can react, he is killed, the police investigate to find the evidence and get to the bottom of the crime. While the book has been loved for decades, the 2020 series featuring Rufus Sewell, Kathy Kiera Clarke and Bertie Carvel, didn't get quite the same positive review.

Some of the reviews for the series are so bad, that one user referred to it as a "pathetic knock-off mini-series that had no right to use the author and book's name".

The visuals were praised though, but it wasn't quite enough to get past the negative reviews. One person wrote: "Once again Phelps thinks she knows better than Dame Agatha Christie, if she feels the need to re-write her plots just remove Christie's name from the title. As others have said it's creepy and attractive to look at, but go past the visuals and you'll find pretty poor story telling."

Another said: "The screenwriter simply doesn't understand Agatha Christie and she's murdering the originals. The Pale Horse, The ABC Murders, Witness for the Prosecution, And Then There Were None - they all miss the point completely."

A fourth wrote alongside a two star rating: "Is this the worst Christie adaptation ever? Illiterate retelling of Christie tale. Basically an episode of a tedious soap opera with a Christie story tagged on to draw in the audience."

Rufus Sewell previously spoke of taking part in the show and encouraged people to tune in because it was "set in hip London of the early 1960s" which he said audiences don't often associate with that genre or Agatha Christie.

He added: "What I've always loved about Agatha Christie is the misfits she writes; she creates these wonderful, central characters who are both odd and so wonderful."

On IMDB the overall rating was a mediocre 6/10, with a handful of 7s and 8s pulling it up from those who had given it a 2 star review. Those who had given it 5/6 stars out of 10 often credited the decision to the fantastic visuals.