Agatha Christie lived a life shrouded in mystery yet now the BBC is attempting to solve the riddle using artificial intelligence to bring the iconic author back to life.
BBC Studios has worked with Agatha Christie Limited to forge a writing course led by Christie for its BBC Maestro platform.
The news was unveiled at a swanky event at London’s Claridge’s hotel this afternoon in the presence of Christie’s great grandson James Prichard, who runs Agatha Christie Ltd, along with a host of top talent and BBC execs.
BBC Maestro, which runs e-courses led by talent like Harlan Coben and Jed Mercurio, has teamed with Christie’s estate, a professional actress and VFX artists to recreate her voice and likeness using AI-enhanced tech and restored audio recordings.
Christie is played by actress Vivien Keene in the course videos but her voice and appearance has been sharpened by artificial intelligence. Not an enormous amount is known about the legendary author’s life but researchers have spent years painstakingly examining the small number of recordings there are, her writings and old photographs in order to paint more of a picture for BBC Maestro.
The BBC Maestro course is the first of its kind and will guide students through Christie’s technique and works.
At Claridge’s today, BBC Studios CEO Brands and Licensing Nicki Sheard explained that the course has been made “with incredible care and the utmost respect” in terms of AI ethics and with the estate’s blessing.
Speaking on a Q&A, Agatha Christie Ltd boss Prichard said he had been “skeptical” at first and stated that his pre-requisites had been for their to be enough footage and for Christie’s look to be authentic enough. “But the script they came up with simply blew my brain away,” he said.
Explaining her role in the process, Keene said she “literally got the job on the shape of my face” by going through a biometrics test first before her first full audition. She revealed that she had to perform as Christie while barely moving her face and staring down the camera as Christie was never filmed from the side. In the end, “it was the best job I ever had,” said Keene.
The BBC has had a long association with the Christie estate.
Over the past decade or so it has made Christie adaptations including And Then There Were None, Ordeal by Innocence and Murder is Easy. The latest, Towards Zero, launched earlier this month on BBC Studios-owned BritBox.
AI is being used more and more in TV and film recreation of late and is a thorny topic. After 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a legal battle ensued over the recreation of character Grand Moff Tarkin from the estate of the late Peter Cushing. More recently, the voice of Michael Parkinson has been re-created for a podcast.
Earlier this week, BBC factual chief Jack Bootle said he will not use generative AI in TV shows to recreate landscapes if a place can be photographed.