Chorion tracks down TV sleuth deals

TELEVISION viewers are bracing themselves for a renewed splurge of Agatha Christie whodunnits as the company which owns the rights to the crime writer's works goes into overdrive.

Chorion, the rights company chaired by Waheed Alli, the Labour peer and multimillionaire TV producer, will be delivering three new Hercule Poirots to London Weekend Television, featuring David Suchet, by the end of the year.

They include a remake of the classic Death On The Nile when Sir Peter Ustinov played the Belgian detective. Another Suchet-Poirot will be delivered in the new year.

Chorion is also in the middle of casting the new Miss Marple after signing a four-year deal to produce dramas for ITV featuring Christie's other detective. A short list is expected to be produced when playwright Kevin Elyot has finished the screenplays.

Profits for the six months to the end of June more than halved to £522,000, affected, it said, by one-off income last year from its other significant rights character Noddy.

Chief executive Nicholas James said: 'Most of our income for the second half is already contracted. This gives us confidence we will deliver substantially increased profits at the year end.'