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Posted on October 8, 2026

Agatha Christie Reconsidered Podcast: Endless Night

Podcast

In our second episode, we take up one of Christie’s stand-alone novels, Endless Night (1967), and its literary and cinematic roots and tentacles. Endless Night is a compelling story – the story of a working-class English man (Mike Rogers) who marries a rich American heiress (Ellie Guteman). The story is told from Mike’s perspective – and you’d be forgiven for believing he loves his new (and rich) wife. However, once Mike has had his beautiful house built on a patch of land (Gypsy’s Acre), Ellie dies, thrown from her horse, and the novel becomes an unraveling of exactly how she died. As a fascinating example of story evolution, Endless Night’s origins and adaptations give insight into Christie’s creative process, with each iteration worthy of consideration. It’s a story that clearly fascinated Christie, as she wrote versions of it across fifty years.

We’ve mapped out the story evolution as we discuss it below. As always, please note that this episode will include spoilers.

Short Stories:

Philomel Cottage (1924)
The Case of the Caretaker (1941)

Full Novel:

Endless Night (1967)

Cinematic Adaptations:

Love from a Stranger (1937) – film based on the 1936 stage adaptation of “Philomel Cottage”
Love from a Stranger (1947) – film based on the 1936 stage adaptation of “Philomel Cottage”
Endless Night (1972) – film based on 1967 novel
“Endless Night”- Agatha Christie’s Marple (2013) – TV series episode

If this sparks your interest, check out our deeper dive into the 1972 film adaptation – Endless Night for horror fans!

Works Cited:

Aldridge, Mark. Agatha Christie on Screen. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016, pp. 329-220.

Ascari, Maurizio. “Poetry into Fiction, Fiction into Poetry: Intertextual Connections in Agatha Christie’s Endless Night.” Crime Fiction Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, 2026, pp. 1-15.

Christie, Agatha. Endless Night. Collins Crime Club, 1967.

Christie, Agatha. “Philomel Cottage.” The Listerdale Mystery, William Collins and Sons, 1934, pp. 27-51.

Christie, Agatha. “The Case of the Caretaker.” Three Blind Mice and Other Stories, Dell Publishing Company, 1948, pp. 129-144.

Endless Night. Directed by Sidney Gilliat, performances by Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett, British Lion Films, 1972.

“Endless Night.” Agatha Christie’s Marple, season 6, episode 3, ITV, 29 Dec. 2013

Jordison, Sam. “Endless Night: Agatha Christie’s favourite still has shock factor.” The Guardian, 13 Nov. 2018.

Love from a Stranger. Directed by Rowland V. Lee, performances by Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone, Trafalgar Films, 1937.

Love from a Stranger. Directed by Richard Whorf, performances by John Hodiak and Sylvia Sidney, Bryan Foy Productions / Eagle-Lion Films, 1947.

Posted on September 15, 2026

Agatha Christie Reconsidered Podcast: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Dawn Keetley/ Elizabeth Erwin/ Podcast

From a highly anticipated exhibition at the British Museum debuting in October to a new BBC series centering Hercule Poirot to the imminent debut of a modern Miss Marple mystery novel, Agatha Christie and her characters remain firmly in the popular culture zeitgeist an astounding fifty years after her death. In some ways, this is not unexpected of an author who has sold over a billion books. And yet, the modern agility and resonance of her stories when compared against her writing contemporaries is worth thinking about – and that is exactly what we hope to do in this seven-part podcast examining the enduring legacy of Christie’s works. We will also consider how Christie’s position as “Queen of Mysteries” has potentially erased her contributions to horror and gothic storytelling by offering an assessment of both her most famous and less so storytelling devices.

In our first episode, we take up The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a story that will reach its 100th year milestone this year and whose unexpected twist continues to divide readers.

Please be mindful that this podcast series will contain spoilers.

Works Cited:

Allmendinger, Blake. “Death by Hari-Kari in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.” ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, vol. 36, no. 3, Apr. 2023, pp. 398–99.

Bayard, Pierre. Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? The Mystery Behind the Agatha Christie Mystery. The New Press, 2001.

Berlatsky, Noah. “Getting Fooled Again: Rereading Agatha Christie’s “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” in the Age of Trump.” The Los Angeles Review of Books, 25 May 2022.

Dey, Anindita. “The Politics of Watching in the Narratives of Detection and Crime: A Study of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Erasers.” IUP Journal of English Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 7–20.

Gutkowski, Emanuela. “An ‘Investigation in Pragmatics’: Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.” Clues: A Journal of Detection, vol. 29, no. 1, Apr. 2011, pp. 51–60.

Lanchester, John. “The Case of Agatha Christie.” London Review of Books, 20 December 2018.

person in a slicker raises a hook in the air. Their face is obscured.

Posted on August 18, 2025

“What Are You Waiting For?”: Talking I Know What You Did Last Summer

Podcast

In this episode, we’re talking all things I Know What You Did Last Summer. Loosely based on the novel by Lois Duncan, this story of adolescent guilt and moral consequence has demonstrated remarkable cultural longevity but why? We’re breaking down this legacy sequel with spoilers, so stay tuned.

Works Cited

Khalid, Haliyana, and Alan Dix. “I Know What You Did Last Summer: What Can We Learn from Photolog.” ECSCW Conference, 2007.

Loock, Kathleen. “Reboot, Requel, Legacyquel: Jurassic World and the Nostalgia Franchise,” 173-88, Daniel Herbert and Constantine Verevis (eds), Film Reboots, Edinburgh University Press, 2020.

Och, Dana. “Beyond Surveillance: Questions of the Real in the Neopostmodern Horror Film.” Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015, pp. 195-212.

Patterson, Valerie O. “Writing Books that Hold Up, from Pay Phones to Cell Phones: An Interview with YA Suspense Novelist Lois Duncan,” North Carolina Literature into Film, vol. 21, 2012, pp. 123-32.

Schneider, Steven Jay. “Kevin Williamson and the Rise of the Neo-stalker.” Post Script, vol. 19, no. 2, 1999, pp. 73-87.

A man screams to warn people to get out of the ocean.

Posted on June 20, 2025

50 Years Later: Talking the Jaws Franchise

Podcast

We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jaws by looking back at Spielberg’s genre-defining original and its progressively wilder sequels. A quartet of films that not only redefined summer horror but also played a pivotal role in shaping contemporary fears of the ocean, the Jaws franchise embraced genre hybridity, influenced public perception of sharks, and contributed to the rise of the summer blockbuster. But are there other reasons that explain the original film’s enduring cultural relevance? We’re diving in today with spoilers, so stay tuned!

Works Cited

Caputi, Jane E. “Jaws as Patriarchal Myth.” Journal of Popular Film, vol. 6, no. 4, 1978, pp. 305-326.

Caputi, Jane. “Jaws as Patriarchal—and Ecocidal—Myth.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 9 – 17.

Edgerton, Gary R. “Summer Spielberg, Winter Spielberg: Generational Transitions from Jaws to the Age of Convergence.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 227-244.

Howe, Andrew. “Amity Means Friendship: Jaws and the Post-Vietnam Politics of Perception.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 31 – 45.

Jackson, Kathy Merlock, and Philip L. Simpson, eds. ” This shark, swallow you whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws. McFarland, 2023.

Jameson, Fredric. “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture (1979).” Cultural Theory: An Anthology, edited by Imre Szeman and Timothy Kaposy, 1990, pp. 60-71.

“Jaws (franchise).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 May 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Le Busque, Brianna, and Carla Litchfield. “Sharks on Film: An Analysis of How Shark-Human Interactions Are Portrayed in Films.” Human Dimensions of Wildlife, vol. 27, no. 2, 2022, pp. 193-199.

Lucken, Melissa Ford. “Struggling Against the Tide: Narrative Structure and the Human Connection in Jaws.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 46 – 58.

Melia, Matthew. “Relocating the Western in Jaws.” The ‘Jaws’ Book: New Perspectives on the Classic Summer Blockbuster, edited by IQ Hunter and Matthew Melia, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Rubey, Dan. “The Jaws in the Mirror.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, no. 10-11, 1976, pp. 20-23.

a closeup of a lion looking out at its kingdom

Posted on April 26, 2025

Environmental Anxiety: Talking Day of the Animals (1977) and Nature’s Grave (2007)

Podcast

In this episode, we’re exploring the intersection of environmental anxiety and horror cinema via the tangled roots of eco-horror. In Day of the Animals (1977), high altitude radiation stemming from the hole in the ozone layer triggers an animal uprising in the mountains and leaves a group of stranded hikers battling the elements and each other. In Nature’s Grave (2007), a troubled couple descends upon a remote beach where their careless and, at times, cruel treatment of the natural world finally causes nature to push back. Both films serve as generative time capsules in understanding our current escalating climate crisis and leave us wondering what happens when the natural world refuses to stay silent. We’re breaking it all down today with spoilers so stay tuned.