Viewers of the BBC’s new Agatha Christie drama will find many familiar elements: a killer on the loose, a mystery to solve and Hercule Poirot piecing together the clues.

But the adaptation of The ABC Murders will also bring Brexit into the mix, inviting audiences to draw parallels between the rise of fascism in 1930s Britain and the state of the nation today.

Sarah Phelps, who wrote the three-part Christmas drama starring John Malkovich, has added historical context to Christie’s original story. Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists are on the rise and a poster seen on a wall in the opening scene warns: “We must stem this alien tide.”

Poirot is a target for xenophobia, a theme touched upon in the book and which Phelps has amplified.

The writer said finding contemporary resonance in Christie’s novels is easy. “You don’t try to make them resonate - they just do, because we go round in cycles and the things we think we’ve left behind us historically are there, savage bunches of filth just waiting to erupt into our consciousness all over again,” Phelps explained.