With an illustrious cast in place, Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Productions have begun filming a three-part adaptation of the author’s masterwork, by Sarah Phelps (The Casual Vacancy, Great Expectations).

1939. Europe teeters on the brink of war. Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly they realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number.

Douglas Booth (Great Expectations, The Riot Club) as Anthony Marston, Charles Dance (Game Of Thrones, Imitation Game) as Justice Lawrence Wargrave, Maeve Dermody (Black Water, Beautiful Kate) as Vera Claythorne, Burn Gorman (The Dark Knight Rises, Torchwood) as William Blore, Anna Maxwell Martin (The Bletchley Circle, Death Comes To Pemberley) as Ethel Rogers, Sam Neill (Peaky Blinders, The Tudors) as General John MacArthur, Miranda Richardson (Mapp & Lucia, Parade’s End) as Miss Emily Brent, Toby Stephens (Black Sails, Jane Eyre) as Dr Edward Armstrong, Noah Taylor (Peaky Blinders, Game Of Thrones) as Thomas Rogers and Aidan Turner (Poldark, The Hobbit Trilogy) as Philip Lombard form a stellar ensemble cast.

The 10 strangers include a reckless playboy, a troubled Harley Street doctor, a formidable judge, an uncouth detective, an unscrupulous mercenary, a God-fearing spinster, two restless servants, a highly decorated general and an anxious secretary. One by one they are picked off. Who will survive? And who is the killer? Copies of an ominous nursery rhyme hang in each room, the murders mimicking the awful fates of its ‘Ten Little Soldier Boys’.

Polly Hill, Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning, says: “We are thrilled to be bringing Agatha Christie’s wonderful novel to the television screen for the first time. Sarah Phelps’ brilliant adaptation and this stellar cast will prove to be a real treat for the BBC One audience.”

CEO of Agatha Christie Productions and executive producer Hilary Strong says: “Agatha Christie Productions is really thrilled to be bringing Christie’s biggest selling novel to the small screen for the first time. We are delighted once again to be working with the wonderful Mammoth Screen, with Sarah Phelps, who has so brilliantly realised Christie’s work in this adaptation, and with such a stellar cast to bring her characters to life.”

Mathew Prichard, Chairman of Agatha Christie Limited and grandson of Agatha Christie, says: “I am so excited that this, the most iconic of Agatha Christie stories, is being made for television with this truly extraordinary cast. My grandmother would be thrilled to know that a new generation will be able to enjoy And Then There Were None when it appears on the BBC.”

Damien Timmer, Managing Director of Mammoth Screen, adds: “We’re really proud to be working with Sarah Phelps on her searingly modern adaption of Agatha Christie’s masterpiece. With this extraordinary cast and director Craig Vivieros at the helm we’re treating it with the ambition and scale befitting of one of the great classic novels of the 20th century.”

Sarah Phelps (The Casual Vacancy, Great Expectations) is writer and executive producer, the director is international award-winning Craig Viveiros (The Liability, Ghosted), the producer is Abi Bach (The Honorable Woman). The executive producers are Mathew Prichard and Hilary Strong for Agatha Christie Productions Ltd, Karen Thrussell and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen and Matthew Read for the BBC.

And Then There Were None is a Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Productions programme for BBC co-produced with A+E Television Networks. RLJ Entertainment has taken US DVD and DTO rights. A+E Networks will handle international sales under the A+E Studios International banner.

UK transmission will be later this year to coincide with Agatha Christie’s 125th anniversary. It will air in the US in 2016.