Holby City star is a doctor again in Agatha Christie thriller

SussexWorld

Bob Barrett – known to millions for his role as Dr Sacha Levy in the BBC1 medical drama Holby City – is a doctor again but in very different circumstances as the Agatha Christie classic And Then There Were None goes on tour.

Transcript

00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil here at

00:05 Group Arts, editor for Sussex Newspapers.

00:07 Great pleasure to speak to Bob Barrett about a subject

00:09 very dear to my heart in particular,

00:11 Angathoprosyne.

00:13 And Bob, you are on the road with

00:15 'And Then There Were None', which is one of the

00:17 greatest mysteries, isn't it?

00:19 It's such a brilliant story.

00:21 Without giving away too much, and of course you

00:23 wouldn't, just set the scene then.

00:25 What is happening?

00:27 The scene is that ten people have been

00:29 taken to a place called Soldier Island

00:31 individually, without knowing

00:33 who they're going to be with,

00:35 or they've been given a reason

00:37 why they're there,

00:39 but they don't know that

00:41 necessarily any other people

00:43 are there. Some do, some don't.

00:45 And

00:47 I think they know they're coming for a dinner party,

00:49 and then,

00:51 once they're there, the play ensues.

00:53 And the real motive as to why

00:55 they're there

00:57 in Soldier Island is

00:59 revealed to them quite

01:01 quickly, once they've arrived.

01:03 And we're giving nothing away if we

01:05 say the fact is these are

01:07 culpable, guilty,

01:09 flawed people. That's what they have

01:11 in common, isn't it?

01:13 They're guilty people. They all have a secret

01:15 which they've hidden, and that

01:17 is revealed to them

01:19 once they arrive.

01:21 Yeah, and you were saying so interestingly

01:23 that one of the great things, one of the

01:25 great things of this play is that you

01:27 very deliberately are leaving the

01:29 audience rudderless. What do you

01:31 mean by that? Yeah. I think

01:33 because there isn't a

01:35 character in the

01:37 play that you can get

01:39 squarely behind. There's no

01:41 Tuaro, there is

01:43 no Marple

01:45 who you know will solve the crime.

01:47 So therefore,

01:49 all the characters have a

01:51 dark past, and no one is

01:53 uniquely sympathetic in the play,

01:55 which means that you

01:57 get to choose, A) who

01:59 you think might have done it.

02:01 There's a huge amount in the interval of people

02:03 discussing, going, "Who do you think did it? Who do you think did it?

02:05 I think it's this. I think it's that person."

02:07 Lots of shocks, lots of surprises,

02:09 but you are left

02:11 really having

02:13 to work the play out

02:15 for yourself as it's being revealed.

02:17 And then the pneumo is so

02:19 shocking and so extraordinary

02:21 that I

02:23 guess because you're

02:25 involved in the play in a different way, you're not

02:27 just sitting back and going, "Well, that person will

02:29 solve the crime." You know

02:31 that you're more front foot as an audience

02:33 than sitting back.

02:35 Isn't it interesting, over the years, various theatres

02:37 have been a bit sniffy about Agatha Christie.

02:39 Fairly, haven't they?

02:41 Because the point is, these are

02:43 properly rounded, interesting

02:45 characters. A genuine

02:47 plausible dilemma, aren't they?

02:49 That's exactly it. And I think

02:51 she used to get a lot of sick, and I think

02:53 I don't understand why, because I think these books

02:55 are perfectly formed,

02:57 beautifully formed. The characters are

02:59 extraordinary. She's got a great

03:01 one of the great gifts for characters,

03:03 I think, in the language. And I think

03:05 she

03:07 weirdly,

03:11 and I wonder what,

03:13 this is a fascinating debate,

03:15 she's more popular now than ever.

03:17 She gets more films, there's more

03:19 films done about her, there's more TV

03:21 programmes done about her, people are now fascinated

03:23 in her life. The Lucy Worsley

03:25 documentaries about her are hugely popular.

03:27 I think there's more,

03:29 now,

03:31 I think, gone are the days where

03:33 she's looked down on and people are snooty

03:35 about her. Now, I think she's seen

03:37 to be the writer that she

03:39 is. And the books are

03:41 incredibly popular.

03:43 I think a lot, sometimes, we're sceptical.

03:45 I mean, I know I'm,

03:47 I read books all the time and I read very obscure

03:49 books and I love my obscure books, but

03:51 I think she's, people, when

03:53 writers are very, very popular, people

03:55 can be sceptical about them. But for some

03:57 reason, I think that's changing.

03:59 - With this one, you see the reasons for the

04:01 popularity, then? - Absolutely,

04:03 because, you know, we're playing out to sold

04:05 houses, sold out houses all around the country.

04:07 People love,

04:09 love, love, love this book,

04:11 this play and this show. - And you're

04:13 on the way to

04:15 Brighton, Guildford and Southampton in the

04:17 next few months. - Yes, we are. We are.

04:19 - I'm looking forward very, very much indeed to seeing

04:21 the show. Really, really

04:23 lovely to speak to you. Thank you. - Lovely to

04:25 speak to you too. Thank you very much. Thank you.

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