| Description | This series contains material relating to Exton's stage adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel Murder is Easy, in which the hero Luke Fitzwilliam shares a London bound train carriage with Miss Pinkerton, a seemingly dotty but sweet elderly lady, who reminds Luke of his own aunt. She talks to him about a series of murders—disguised as accidents—taking place in her home village of Wychwood-under-Ashe. Miss Pinkerton says that although the local police are out of their depth, she knows the identity of the murderer because of a telling gaze that this person fixes on the intended victim. She is on her way to Scotland Yard to reveal the guilty party. Unfortunately, she does not inform Luke who it is.
Luke learns the next day that Miss Pinkerton was killed in a hit-and-run car accident before reaching the Yard. He goes to the village, posing as a folklore researcher, to find the murderer himself. Four main suspects soon present themselves: a creepy antique dealer, a prickly solicitor, a smug doctor and a bombastic, self-made peer engaged to an attractive young woman; but is the culprit one of the other inhabitants of the village, which emanates a pervasive supernatural atmosphere that unsettles Luke's detective work (via Wikipedia). |
| Individual or organisational biography | From his earliest days working on ITV's Armchair Theatre productions to his dramatisations for popular, lavishly produced series such as Agatha Christie's Poirot and Jeeves & Wooster, Clive Exton was a screenwriter who brought intelligence and depth to television drama. (see Saturday, 18 August 2007 Independent Newspaper).
|
| Custodial History | The papers have been in the possession of Mrs Mara Exton, since the death of her husband Clive Exton. The papers are donated to University of the Arts London in March 2010. |