Tommy and Tuppence Beresford

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (real names Thomas and Prudence Beresford, nee Cowley) are two characters invented by Agatha Christie who appear either as secret agents or private detectives . They are less well known than Christie's other characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple . The author has published four novels and a collection of crime stories with them.

Life

In the novels, parts of the life of Tommy and Prudence, whom everyone only calls Tuppence, are told over a period of almost 50 years.

The two have their first appearance in Christie's second book as young people in the crime thriller A Dangerous Adversary ( The Secret Adversary ), which takes place shortly after the First World War . The rather cautious, thorough and reserved Tommy and the impetuous, intuitive and cunning Tuppence happened to see each other there again after they met in the war - she as a nurse , he as a wounded man - but lost sight of each other again. Since they both have to take on a job, by chance they find a certain Jane Finn, who survived the sinking of the RMS Lusitania but then disappeared without a trace. She carried secret documents the disclosure of which could seriously compromise the British and American governments. Tommy and Tuppence, with the tacit help of the Secret Service, go in search of the young woman as amateurs . They are supported by Albert, a young lift boy whom Tommy and Tuppence get to know during their work. But also a mysterious “Mr. Brown ”and the American millionaire Julius P. Hersheimer, who claims to be a cousin of Jane Finn, want to find her.

After the adventure is over, Tommy and Tuppence decide to get married.

The reader encounters both of them again in the crime story collection Die Büchse der Pandora, set six years later . Tommy now has an office job with the Secret Service and Tuppence is a housewife. But the two are bored. The offer from the head of the British secret service to take over a detective agency, which is obviously involved in espionage activities, promises a change. Tommy is said to be acting as a Mr. Blunt, the detective agency's detained manager, and Tuppence as his secretary. The two of them accept the offer and experience entertaining adventures with the various clients. Albert is also back again. The book ends with Tuppence telling Tommy that she is expecting a child.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf is set in World War II . Tommy is supposed to track down a traitor from within his own ranks. One agent has already been killed in a fake accident, but was able to provide an important clue before he died. There is no room for Tuppence on this matter. But since her two children, the twins Derek and Deborah, are out of the house, she too wants to make herself useful for her country. So she manages to find out through a tricky procedure that Tommy is supposed to rent the Pension Sans Souci in Leahampton under a false name in order to search for the spy "N" or "M". When Tommy arrives there, he has to pull himself together in order not to let it be seen that he is very familiar with the boarder Mrs. Blenkensop. Faithful Albert reappears here too: he is now married and the proud owner of a pub . In a life-threatening situation he saves the life through his courageous intervention of his former rule.

Years later, Tommy and Tuppence in the novel Lauter Charming Old Ladies are a married couple at a somewhat advanced age, around their early to mid-60s. They both decide to visit Tommy's aunt Ada in the old people's home . There a Mrs. Lancaster caught her attention, asking if the dead child behind the fireplace was hers. When after a short time Aunt Ada suddenly dies and Mrs. Lancaster was unexpectedly removed from the home, Tuppence no longer believes in the talk of a confused woman. Unfortunately, Tommy has to go to an important conference, and so Tuppence decides to go alone to find out where Lancaster has gone. A picture left behind by Lancaster leads Tuppence on her trail, and in the end her life is even in danger.

In old age does not protect against acumen , Tommy and Tuppence are a married couple around 70 and now also grandparents. They also have an adopted daughter who works in Africa. But they both decide to move again and buy an old house. From there, Tommy continues to travel to London every day, where he has an office near the Home Office. So Tuppence has a lot of time and rummages around the house. In a children's book left there by some previous owner, Tuppence discovers the mysterious sentence “Mary Jordan did not die of natural causes. It was one of us. ”This clue leads both to a murder 60 years ago, to espionage activities from the First World War and the scattered heap of a kind of fifth column of fascists who are up to mischief again. As in the previous stories, Albert, now a widowed butler, is also part of the party. The dog Hannibal, whom the two have acquired, plays an important role. The intelligent Manchester Terrier is closely involved in the investigation.

Age does not protect against acumen is the last book written by Agatha Christie (though not the last to be published). Christie also uses childhood memories, which she also described in her memoirs.

Film adaptations

From LWT cases of Tommy and Tuppence were from 1983 to 1984 in the television series Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime filmed. The main roles were played by Francesca Annis and James Warwick.

In 2006, By the Pricking of My Thumbs was produced by the English television station ITV as an episode of the Miss Marple series with Geraldine McEwan . Tuppence, whose book character was partially changed there, receives Miss Marple as support.

The BBC aired a six episode television series in 2015 under the title Partners in Crime , with David Walliams as Tommy and Jessica Raine as Tuppence.

Detective novels from the Tommy and Tuppence Beresford series

year	German title	English title
1922	A dangerous opponent	The Secret Adversary
1941	Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf	N or M?
1968	All lovely old ladies	By the Pricking of My Thumbs
1973	Age does not protect against ingenuity	Posters of Fate

Short crime collection with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford

year	German title	English title
1929	Pandora's box with	Partners in Crime with
	The visit of the fairy	A fairy in the flat
	A cup of tea	A pot of tea
	The pink pearl	The Affair of the Pink Pearl
	The mysterious stranger	The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger
	The gentleman in newspaper	Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper
	The missing lady	The Case of the Missing Lady
	Blindman's Buff	Blindman's Bluff
	The man in the fog	The Man in the Mist
	The Raschler	The crackler
	The Sunningdale Enigma	The Sunningdale Mystery
	The house of death	The House of the Lurking Death
	An unwavering alibi	The Unbreakable Alibi
	The pastor's daughter	The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House
	The ambassador's boots	The Ambassador's Boots
	The man who was number 16	The Man Who Was No. 16