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Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures is a more satisfying, and apparently more factually based, version of the events that transpired in Michael Apted's 1979 feature Agatha. In 1926, the renowned mystery author Agatha Christie, creator of fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, disappeared for 11 days, prompting a nationwide hunt. When she was discovered, it was clear she had no memory of who or where she was, or what specifically happened to precipitate her crisis. The ingenious A Life in Pictures approaches these extraordinary events from two angles: first, as seen by the then-contemporary Christie (Olivia Williams), undergoing psychiatric care and confronting old fears and memories, and much later, in 1962, as an old woman (Anna Massey) interviewed on the 10th anniversary of Christie's hit play, The Mousetrap. This taut drama has an unnerving and spooky quality underscoring Christie's psychological distress. But what's most interesting is the story's growing portrait of a woman living two lives, one for the public and another for herself. There's some fun in here, too: a sequence in which Christie explains how she invented Poirot (inspired by Belgian refugees she knew during World War I) is charming and playful. --Tom Keogh