
'The Mousetrap'
Clip: Episode 3 | 2m 51sVideo has Closed Captions
Lucy discovers the origins of Agatha's most famous play, "The Mousetrap."
Lucy discovers the origins of Agatha's most famous play, "The Mousetrap."

'The Mousetrap'
Clip: Episode 3 | 2m 51sVideo has Closed Captions
Lucy discovers the origins of Agatha's most famous play, "The Mousetrap."
How to Watch Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipLucy: One person who read all about it was Agatha Christie.
Years later, she wrote, "There was a case once where children had been neglected and abused after they had been placed by the council on a farm.
One child did die, and there had been a feeling that a slightly delinquent boy might grow up full of the desire for revenge."
The O'Neill case gave Agatha the germ of an idea that she used for a 30-minute radio play called "Three Blind Mice."
Here's the notebook where she's working on the idea, and she's done the title as a pictogram.
Three, blind-- that's an eye crossed out-- and then a cute little mouse.
But she couldn't use that title when she expanded the radio play into a full length stage play.
There was already a play with that title.
She was stumped.
She just couldn't think of an idea for what to call it, until somebody came up with a stroke of genius.
It was to be called "The Mousetrap."
( applause ) On the surface, the play Agatha developed is a classic Christie whodunit.
A group of unconnected strangers arrive at a guest house.
They become trapped there by bad weather.
It's another closed circle.
But soon Agatha will weave the O'Neill tragedy into the drama.
The play begins in quite a light-hearted way, but Agatha is so good at light and shade, things soon turn dark.
There's been a murder.
A policeman arrives at the house to follow up a lead, and he tells everybody that the victim was a woman who years before had been responsible for the death of a little boy in her care.
Was she murdered in revenge?
Taking inspiration from the real life O'Neill case, Agatha imagines that the surviving brother could be the vengeful killer.
Video has Closed Captions
Lucy boards the SS Sudan, the paddle steamer that inspired "Death on the Nile." (2m 2s)
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Lucy examines Agatha Christie’s later life, learning how she became the "Queen of Crime." (30s)
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