Das fahle Pferd

An unpleasant man does unpleasant things to his unpleasant friends and unpleasant acquaintances, who do unpleasant things back to him, possibly for all eternity.

There is no doubt an audience for this very classy, well-made and well-acted soap opera, consisting of people who think the world unpleasant and like to have their noses rubbed in it. There are such people, and they deserve to be entertained as much as the rest of us do.

However, viewers should be aware that, though it borrows Agatha Christie's title, her characters, and several plot elements, this bears no more than a superficial resemblance to Christie's novel, but free-rides on Christie's reputation, presumably in order to boost its viewing figures. I can think of no other reason for it to pose as a Christie adaptation.

The ending killed it. It was a good and enjoyable plot until it stoped making sense towards the end.

Once again Phelps thinks she knows better than Dame Agatha Christie, if she feels the need to re-write her plots just remove Christie's name from the title. As others have said it's creepy and attractive to look at, but go past the visuals and you'll find pretty poor story telling. I had expected Death comes as the end to be the next production, that would have been interesting as it has never been made for television. This is one of Christie's later books, it has a chilling core, I fear that in each of the Television adaptations, that grit has been missed. It's better than the dreadful mash up of The ABC Murders from last year.

It's so exhausting watching Agatha Christie adaptations that literally should not legally be called an adaptation. The storyline was trash and nothing to do with the book. Other than it contained a great cast and visually was shot well, this is a must miss.

This Sarah Phelps (am not British and know nothing of her work) seems to have aroused passionate criticism for her seemingly wholesale changes to the revered Agatha Christie's work. If the accusations are correct and further reading seems to make that a fact then it seems rather pointless in even describing The Pale Horse (the TV serialisation) as based on Christie's novel. At no stage did this production feel like a Christie who-dunnit. The so-called three witches felt completely contrived from start to finish. And the ending? Well, there will be no use of spoilers here because this Phelps' yarn has none. Take your pick from a few guesses! I fully agree with one review here which suggested the Christie estate should take legal proceedings against Sarah Phelps whose butchering of plot and character make this the worst Christie adaptation ever produced. So disgusting that a rating is inappropriate.