Whodunnit Dinners podcast #23 S3 Ep4 Agatha Christie - The Seven Dials Mystery: poor effort from Agatha, Freeman vs Clunes and a fried fish supper
We've reached the halfway point for the third season of the Whodunnit Dinners podcast! (Tiny cheer) The latest episode actually turned out to be a bit of shocker. In each of our Whodunnit Dinners podcasts the two of us take turns introducing the other person to a new murder mystery story, and on this occasion, Helen decided to introduce Katie to a fairly early Agatha Christie, called The Seven Dials Mystery. It did not go the way she planned. Having seen the recent excellent Netflix adaptation of the same name she was looking forward to a similar quality of entertainment when she read the book. But no.
The Seven Dials Mystery
Written by Agatha in 1929 (in the first decade of her career), The Seven Dials Mystery features Eileen 'Bundle' Brent (a character first introduced in Christie’s 1925 novel The Secret of Chimneys) and Superintendent Battle (Helen said in the podcast that he was also in two of her other books, but it turns out he features in five). In a typically intriguing Christie set-up, a young aristocrat at a countryside estate called Chimneys has a prank played on him by friends, who set eight alarm clocks in his bedroom to go off at the same time. When this fails to wake him up, they discover he has been murdered, and one of the eight 'dials' appears to have been hurled out the window. This leads Bundle and her friends into the so-called 'Seven Dials Mystery'.
So where does it go wrong?
Sounds great, you might think. Well yes, the premise is great, Bundle is a fabulous character and the book does a great job of satirising the class system and the 'bright young things' that Bundle associates with, but in many other regards it falls massively short. Moreover, the really very good Netflix adaptation adapts the book beyond recognition, which set Helen up for several massive disappointments upon subsequently reading the book. To hear more, listen to the podcast! (And by all means share your comments with us; you may disagree!)
By contrast, the dinner segment of the podcast was a tasty dish that hit the mark.
The Seven Dials dish
In the novel, a central location for the plot is a seedy nightclub called the 'The Seven Dials Club', which is twice referenced as smelling strongly of fish and chips. The venue had been set up to create a faux-gritty ambiance that would appeal to rich youngsters keen for somewhere a bit edgy, and so fish and chip were served there, as a working class street food.
Katie happily delved into the history of fish and chips - how they arrived in Britain via the immigrant population - and is equally happy to credit a great fish and chip restaurant in Borough Market in London called Fish! for lots of her intel.
How to make fish and chips
In terms of a good recipe to make your own fish and chips at home, Katie deferred on this occasion to one of the masters of quick and easy tasty home cooked food: Mr Jamie Oliver. She found one recipe in a cookbook that she had at home, but here is a link to another one if you don't fancy using beer for your batter.
Beer-battered fish, chips and mushy peas
Easy fish and chips plus mushy peas.
Listen to the Whodunnit Dinners podcast
If you want to hear more about Agatha Christie, Bundle or the reason Helen rated The Seven Dials Mystery a poor 2 out of 5 magnifying glasses, check out Whodunnit Dinners podcast #23!