Brand new Agatha Christie adaptation Towards Zero arrives on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 2nd March, after filming in and around Bristol with support from the city’s Film Office, and on the Devon coast.
Based on the classic mystery by the best-selling author of all time, the series has been adapted for screen by BAFTA-nominated Rachel Bennette (NW) and directed by the Olivier Award-winning Sam Yates (Magpie). It follows 2023’s hit Christie adaptation Murder is Easy, which was one of the UK’s most watched new dramas of the year across all channels and streamers, averaging 7 million viewers across both parts. It is produced by Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited for BBC iPlayer and BBC One, in a co-commission with BritBox International.
Bristol Film Office supported filming last Summer at locations including Frog Lane and the nearby Masonic Hall near Park Street, Deanery Lane and Bristol Cathedral, the University of Bristol’s Goldney Hall and Tyntesfield House on the outskirts of the city. The fictional Gull’s Point and Easterhead Bay Hotel locations were shot on the scenic Devon coast.
We were excellently served by our Bristol and South West locations when bringing the world of Towards Zero to life. We had some particular challenges – recreating the Royal Courts of Justice, 1930’s Wimbledon Centre Court and a sparkling modern Art Deco hotel geographically opposing an old country pile on a Devon cliffside. The Devonian landscape is so central to Christie’s Towards Zero, so it was really special to be able to film at Burgh Island Hotel and beaches in the Kingsbridge area, just down the coastal path from Christie’s home, Greenway.
Rebecca Durbin, Exec Producer, Mammoth Screen
Filming in Central Bristol during a busy working day is always a logistical challenge – traffic management, working with the public, the challenges of period vehicles! – but Bristol Film Office were instrumental in providing welcome practical support and making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible, arranging recces, providing assistance when liaising with locations and councils and offering invaluable local advice and guidance.
Bristol & South West locations
The nave of Bristol Cathedral acted as a double for the exterior for Westminster’s Royal Courts Of Justice in Towards Zero. Conveniently for the producers, gothic revivalist architect George Edmund Street who masterminded the Law Courts on The Strand in London, also designed the nave of Bristol Cathedral. Sessions House in Usk, South Wales, served as the interior for the Courts, paired with corridors and walkways at Grittleton House in Chippenham (which also served as Sylvia’s boarding school).
Frog Lane in Bristol City Centre served as a busy 1930’s London street. The producers felt that the pale grey architecture of the street had a slightly 1930’s art deco feel that complimented the interiors of Nevile Strange’s fashion-forward apartment, which were shot at Goldney Hall, one of the University of Bristol’s buildings. Despite Goldney Hall being 18th Century, Production Designer Lucienne Suren worked to create a bold, art deco look – the shapes of the murals and art work on the walls echoing the architecture of Frog Lane.
To recreate 1930’s Wimbledon, producers worked with a VFX company to enhance a full-scale replica court built at the Bath & West Showground in Shepton Mallet. A room in The Province of Bristol Masonic Hall on Park Street served as the Wimbledon changing room.
A private home in Wiltshire served as the perfect country house to become Gulls Point, the family seat where matriarch Lady Tressilian rules the roost. The property’s portico overlooked an expansive sweeping green vista that made it easily “transferable” to a cliffside in Devon, with the help of VFX. The private home was paired with the imposing Tyntesfield House, a National Trust property on Bristol’s outskirts. Despite its Gothic exteriors, the “below stairs” kitchen and servants quarters worked very well as a match to the Wiltshire stately home.
The long straight ‘Towards Zero’ vanishing point road was filmed on a tree-lined road on the Badminton Estate.
Devon locations
Easterhead Bay Hotel exteriors were filmed at Burgh Island Hotel near Kingsbridge. The hotel’s sea water swimming pool doubled for the hotel in Nice, South of France, where Nevile and Kay meet. The Forum Bath provided the space for the art department to create the ultra-modern interiors to match with the Art Deco exterior of Burgh Island Hotel.
The beaches at Bantham, where the Avon meets the sea, and the more sheltered cove at Thurlestone, served as the fictional beaches around Saltcreek and Gulls Point. The production team worked closely with local film offices, the council and National Trust to ensure filming activity didn’t impact on local residents, including wildlife and nesting birds.
About Towards Zero
Towards Zero stars Anjelica Huston as Lady Tressilian, Matthew Rhys as Inspector Leach, Clarke Peters as family lawyer Mr Treves, Oliver Jackson-Cohen as British tennis star Nevile Strange who has two ladies in his life: Ella Lily Hyland plays his ex-wife Audrey and Mimi Keene is his new wife Kay. Anjana Vasan is the lady’s companion Mary Aldin, Jack Farthing plays the estranged Thomas Royde, Adam Hugill is Nevile’s mysterious valet Mac, and Grace Doherty is Mr Treves’ ward Sylvia.
England, 1936. After a scandalous celebrity divorce, Nevile Strange and his ex-wife Audrey make the unthinkable decision to spend a summer together at Gull’s Point, their childhood home and the coastal estate of Nevile’s aunt, Lady Tressilian. With unfinished business between the former childhood sweethearts, plus the presence of Nevile’s new wife Kay, tensions are running high. Add to this a long-suffering lady’s companion, a mysterious gentleman’s valet, an exiled cousin with a grudge, a venerable family lawyer, an inquisitive orphan and a French con man, and soon there will be murder. A troubled detective must rediscover his purpose to untangle a toxic web of jealousy, deceit and dysfunction. Can he solve the crime before another victim meets their death?
An explosive love triangle, a formidable matriarch and a house party of enemies. All compelled… Towards Zero.
Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero (3×60’) is produced by Agatha Christie Limited and Mammoth Screen (part of ITV Studios), and is a co-commission between the BBC and BritBox International. It is adapted by Rachel Bennette, directed by Sam Yates and produced by Rebecca Durbin. Executive producers are James Prichard for Agatha Christie Limited, Sheena Bucktowonsing and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen, Danielle Scott-Haughton for the BBC and Jon Farrar, Stephen Nye and Robert Schildhouse for BritBox International.
Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero will be available in full on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Sunday 2 March, with episodes airing weekly on BBC One from 9pm that night.