The scene: Outside a stately English home, a man and a woman attempt to solve a mystery. What's unusual about this picture?

They're using the internet.

In a departure from what could be the logline for many a cozy English mystery before it, "Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence" marks the first time Agatha Christie's work has been modernized for an English-speaking TV audience. In this six-part drama premiering next year, there are phones, social media and TikTok alongside the usual murky secrets, red herrings and nefarious crimes.

Speaking in late October on the set of the BritBox contemporary series shooting in the U.K., writer and executive producer Phoebe Eclair-Powell says the makers were thrilled to get permission from Christie's estate and have been careful not to "simplify" solving classic puzzles, like a locked room mystery, with new tech.

"We have used it, but carefully, sparingly, and when we think actually that it's enhanced the original story that it's adapted from," explains Eclair-Powell.

She says that it's been a "tricky" part of the process, but one they hope Christie herself would approve of.

In Japan, Korea, India and Sweden, there have already been Christie characters living in the modern age, but this is the first contemporary adaptation in the author's native language.

"Phoebe came to us with a brilliant take on the stories which put them in the modern day and because of the energy & vitality of these characters it felt completely natural to say yes!" Christie's great-grandson James Prichard, who manages the literary rights to her estate, wrote in an email.

The Associated Press joined stars Antonia Thomas ("The Good Doctor") and Josh Dylan ("The Buccaneers") in the library of a... Read More