Oliver Jackson-Cohen And Ella Lily Hyland On Agatha Christie’s ‘Towards Zero’ and The Success Of Whodunit Mysteries

Towards Zero is the latest Agatha Christie’s novel to be adapted as a miniseries and you can now stream it on Britbox. Created by Rachel Bennette and directed by Sam Yates, Towards Zero stars legendary actress Anjelica Huston, Matthew Rhys, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ella Lily Hyland, Anjana Vasan and Mimi Keene.

The story takes place in England, in 1936. British tennis star Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who just went through a scandalous divorce, decides to spend the summer with his ex-wife and his new fiancée at Gull’s Point, his childhood home. There, Nevile’s aunt, Lady Tressilian (Angelica Huston) makes it a point to settle some unfinished businesses with her nephew and the rest of her guests (whether they were welcome in the house, or not.) Tensions keep growing as secrets and lies unfold, which will lead to a tragic murder.

I spoke with the stars of the three-part drama, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Ella Lily Hyland about this new Agatha Christie’s adaptation. I asked them if they felt like reading the book before reading the script would generally be helpful in the understanding of their characters.

Jackson-Cohen said, “It’s quite an interesting thing with an adaptation because sometimes, the book can be incredibly useful, sometimes it can put ideas in your head that are not necessarily in the adaptation. So I always start reading the book and then decide if it’s actually useful to continue.”

He added: “But for the script, the adaptation that we were sent, they changed a lot of things when they were filming, there were a lot of rewrites coming in, so by the time we started filming, we knew where the story went but not exactly how they were gonna get to that point. And with a story like this one, everything is sort of intricate you kind of just had to buckle in and see where they are going to take it. But the payoff and how you get to the pay off in the end is a fascinating journey.”

For the two actors, the secret of a well-crafted murder mystery resides in the filming and the editing process and they explained that it can take the audience on a complete different trajectory. Jackson-Cohen said, “It’s so interesting with a whodunnit, because so much of it is in the construction of the thing and in the editing, you know? Who you linger on, for how long, and they’re constantly telling the audience what they should think or feel. So it’s fascinating to see where other people get led and what other people think or assume.”

Hyland added: “There’s such a question of morals as well, it’s all really about desire, power and relationships. So something that someone believe is morally wrong, it might lead them to think about a culprit.”

These past few years, whodunits have been on the rise with multiple adaptations of Hercule Poirot’s investigations for the big screen and the adaptation of many other Agatha Christie’s novels, such as Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? or Ordeal by Innocence for the small screen. With the success of the series of movies Knives Out or the highly popular TV show Only Murders in the Building, it is safe to say that whodunits have a singular way to draw the audience in.

Jackson-Cohen explained, “Everyone has a motif and a reason, that’s the exciting part of watching it and it is why whodunit are successful and beloved, because you’re an active part, you’re involved in the show, as a viewer. There’s something delicious about that, the payoff of it.”

I asked Hyland if she could detect the clues while reading the script, or if the director and writer were holding back these little indications that might help the audience guess who the murderer is. Hyland said, “It was very cleverly done by Sam because it might be depicted in an ambivalent kind of way, but he would give you a really clear motive that made sense for your character at that time.”

She added: “Everyone has a killer instinct that comes out in many different ways. So it’s probably in the way it’s shot as well. But it’s interesting sometimes when you make things obvious and the audience is very clever and will be like ‘Oh they’re making hit too obvious.’”