Reshooting Agatha Christie whodunnit Ordeal by Innocence after Ed Westwick sex allegation meant major headaches
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Reshooting the Agatha Christie whodunnit Ordeal by Innocence gave producers some major headaches.
The BBC drama was scheduled for Christmas, but was shelved when star Ed Westwick, 30, was accused of sexual assaults, which he has denied.
When Christian Cooke, 30, was brought in to play Mickey Argyll instead, it meant reshooting 35 scenes.
Over 12 days in January, Cooke was joined by the original cast for what producer Damian Timmer admits was a “very complicated” process.
Most of the cast were by then working on new projects. Anthony Boyle, 23, was in rehearsals for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway, but flew in for a couple of days, and Matthew Goode, 39, was able to offer a “12-hour window”, which meant he lost a night’s sleep.
(Image: PA)
Eleanor Tomlinson, 25, went straight from the Christie adaptation to Poldark then straight back to Ordeal by Innocence. Alice Eve, 36, coming from the US, was the only one who failed to make it after she had a problem with her immigration papers.
Director Sandra Goldbacher had to come up with a solution.
She tells Radio Times: “We used split screens in the way you would if the same actor is playing twins in a film.
“We merged Alice’s performance from the first version into the new scenes.”
(Image: BBC)
The weather was also an issue because the original filming had taken place in summer.
Sandra says: “The biggest problem was having to cut out icy breath from scenes that were supposed to be taking place in the middle of August.”
Props and costume pieces were flown back from other sets all over Europe. Fortunately, the owners of the Scottish house used as the 1950s location had kept the changes to the decor made by the set designers.
The three-part drama starts on Easter Sunday.