50 Fun Facts About And Then There Were None

In And Then There Were None, the absent hosts are Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen, a name punning on which word?

Unknown is what the retired judge hears in the name, and he is the one who points it out after dinner. By then the guests have realised that not one of them has ever met their hosts.

Roughly how many copies has And Then There Were None sold, making it the world's best-selling mystery novel?

100 million copies and more had been sold by 2007, putting it among the best-selling books of any kind. It has also been turned into more plays, films and broadcasts than any other Agatha Christie story.

Which animated sitcom parodied And Then There Were None in a 2010 hour-long episode called And Then There Were Fewer?

Family Guy opened its ninth season with the spoof, in which a dinner party turns into a string of murders. It was also the first episode of the series to air in high definition.

After the first dinner in And Then There Were None, what delivers a murder accusation against everyone present?

A gramophone record does it, put on by the butler, who is only following written instructions. The voice ends by asking whether the accused have anything to say in their defence.

And Then There Were None strands its ten strangers on a rocky island off the coast of which English county?

Devon was home ground for Agatha Christie, who was born in the seaside town of Torquay. The BBC's 2015 version shot many of its beach and harbour scenes next door in Cornwall instead.

What sets the murders in And Then There Were None apart from those in most Agatha Christie mysteries?

No sleuth solves them: the police in the epilogue are left baffled, and the truth only comes out because the murderer chose to write it down. Christie said the puzzle needed that epilogue to be explained.

When Agatha Christie turned And Then There Were None into a 1943 stage play, how did she soften the ending?

Two characters survive on stage, Vera and Lombard, who turn out to be innocent and fall in love. Christie and her producers feared audiences would stay away from so grim a finale.

Which guest in And Then There Were None is the killer, driven by a lifelong urge to kill only the guilty?

Lawrence Wargrave spent a career on the bench sentencing murderers to death and came to long to kill someone himself. He fakes his own death partway through the story so that nobody suspects him.

How does the killer's written confession reach the police at the very end of And Then There Were None?

In a bottle at sea, the confession drifts until a trawler hauls it up in its nets. The killer admits to craving recognition for a crime that nobody could work out.

In And Then There Were None, what vanishes from the dining-room table each time one of the guests dies?

A china figurine goes missing after every death, from a set of ten that stood in the centre of the table. The butler is the first to spot that one has gone, on the night of the first death.

Under which title did Pocket Books sell And Then There Were None in the United States from 1964 to 1986?

Ten Little Indians came from an American version of the counting rhyme in the plot. The first British title used a racial slur, and UK editions only dropped it in 1985.

Which reckless young driver is the first guest to die in And Then There Were None, choking on his drink?

Anthony Marston dies within minutes of hearing the accusations, one of only two guests to admit the charge at once. His only regret over the deaths he caused was losing his driving licence.

Which poison, slipped into an after-dinner drink, kills the first victim in And Then There Were None?

Cyanide works so fast that the others first assume the young man has killed himself. The doctor checks the remaining glasses and finds nothing wrong with any of them.

How does Vera Claythorne, who believes she is the last one alive, die in And Then There Were None?

She hangs herself with a noose the killer has left ready in her bedroom, completing the last line of the nursery rhyme. Guilt over a drowned child finally overwhelms her.

In And Then There Were None, what cuts the island off from the mainland just as the third body is found?

A storm at sea breaks while the general's body is being carried indoors, and no boat can cross. The boatman returns as soon as the weather lets him, far too late to save anyone.

Which organisation is left with ten bodies and no explanation in the epilogue of And Then There Were None?

Scotland Yard pieces together the first six deaths from the victims' diaries but cannot say who killed the rest. Its officers can show only that somebody was still alive after the last guest died.

Which Hercule Poirot novel was inspired by the same real-life island hotel as And Then There Were None?

Evil Under the Sun followed two years later and puts Poirot in a seaside hotel modelled on the same place. The David Suchet television version was filmed on the real island.

In And Then There Were None, Dr Armstrong has his consulting rooms at which famous London address?

Harley Street marks him out as a doctor at the top of his trade. He travels to the island believing he has been summoned there for his medical skills.

Which item, stolen then returned to Philip Lombard's bedside drawer, later kills him in And Then There Were None?

His revolver is lifted from his pocket on the beach by Vera Claythorne. She shoots him as he lunges for it, sure that he is the murderer.

In modern editions of And Then There Were None, what is the isolated rock where the ten guests are stranded called?

Soldier Island matches the Ten Little Soldier Boys of the nursery rhyme framed on every bedroom wall. Earlier editions gave both the rhyme and the island other names.

In And Then There Were None, General MacArthur sent a young officer to certain death after discovering what?

His wife's affair came to light when she put two letters in the wrong envelopes, so the general read the one meant for the officer. On the island he comes to accept that nobody will leave alive.

Emily Brent of And Then There Were None is accused over the suicide of which person she threw out of her house?

Her pregnant maid, Beatrice Taylor, drowned herself after being dismissed for expecting a child outside marriage. Miss Brent feels no guilt and will only talk about it to another woman.

Why did a patient of Dr Armstrong die on the operating table years before And Then There Were None begins?

He operated while drunk, and the memory comes back in a vivid dream on his first night on the island. The killer later uses his trusting nature to stage a fake death.

William Blore of And Then There Were None is accused of which crime that sent the innocent James Landor to prison?

Perjury earned Landor a life sentence, and he died in prison soon afterwards. Blore was a police inspector at the time and now works as a private investigator.

What does Philip Lombard of And Then There Were None admit doing to a group of East African tribesmen?

Leaving them to starve after taking their food is a charge he admits without any sign of remorse. Only one other guest owns up as readily.

The butler and cook in And Then There Were None, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, are accused of letting whom die?

Their former employer, an old woman in poor health, died when they held back her medicine so that they could inherit. The cook is so haunted by it that she faints when the charge is read out.

What job did Vera Claythorne of And Then There Were None hold when the small boy in her care drowned?

Governess was the post she lost when the boy died, and she now teaches games at a third-rate girls' school. She let him swim out too far on purpose, then swam after him as if to save him.

In And Then There Were None, Vera Claythorne let young Cyril drown so that which man would inherit a fortune?

Her lover Hugo was the boy's uncle, and stood to inherit the estate and marry her if the child died. Instead he sensed what she had done and left her.

What heavy object, dropped from Vera Claythorne's window, kills William Blore in And Then There Were None?

A bear-shaped clock made of marble crushes his skull, letting the killer tick off the rhyme's line about a bear's hug. Blore had gone back to the house alone to fetch food.

What household chore is the butler Thomas Rogers doing when he is killed in And Then There Were None?

Chopping firewood for the kitchen fire leaves him alone before breakfast, and he is struck from behind with an axe. He had carried on serving meals after Mrs Rogers was found dead.

In And Then There Were None, what touches Vera Claythorne's neck in her bedroom and makes her scream?

A strand of seaweed was fixed to the ceiling as a decoy. While the others rush upstairs to help her, the judge is left alone below, and they come back to find him apparently shot.

The sixth body in And Then There Were None wears a mock wig made from which item that had gone missing?

A ball of wool belonging to Emily Brent makes the wig, and a missing bathroom curtain is draped as the scarlet robe. The effect is a judge about to pass sentence.

Dr Armstrong's drowning in And Then There Were None matches the nursery rhyme's line about which sea creature?

A red herring swallows one of the boys in the rhyme, and a false trail is exactly what the doctor falls for. He helps the killer with a trick, meets him on the cliffs at night and is pushed into the sea.

In And Then There Were None, which insect is found in the room where Emily Brent lies dead, echoing the rhyme?

A bee is in the room because the rhyme's fifth victim is stung by one. What actually kills her is an injection in the neck, which she feels as no more than a pin prick.

What news about the killer's own health sets the island plot of And Then There Were None in motion?

A terminal illness leaves him with nothing to lose, so he acts on a scheme he had long held in check. His last victim is himself, shot in a way that matches his earlier staged death.

After a great deal of planning, how did Agatha Christie rate writing And Then There Were None against her other novels?

The hardest to write, she said, because ten people had to die without the plot turning ridiculous or the murderer becoming obvious. She was prouder of its craftsmanship than of anything else she wrote.

Which real tidal islet, reached at high tide by a sea tractor, inspired the setting of And Then There Were None?

Burgh Island has an Art Deco hotel where Agatha Christie often stayed, and a beach house was built there as her writing retreat. Noël Coward and The Beatles are among the other famous names to have stayed.

The counting rhyme in And Then There Were None comes from 1860s songs written for which kind of stage show?

Minstrel shows on both sides of the Atlantic sang it: an American version appeared in 1868 and a British one in 1869. Agatha Christie's novel took its plot and its first title from the British one.

Which false name does William Blore give in And Then There Were None while claiming to be from South Africa?

Mr Davis is the cover he adopts for what he believes is a job guarding jewels. It collapses on the first evening, when the accusations give his real name.

Which director made the first film of And Then There Were None, a 1945 version played partly as comedy?

René Clair said he and his screenwriter conceived the picture more or less as a comedy, and they gave it the stage play's happier ending. Its copyright later lapsed, putting the film in the public domain.

George Pollock's 1965 film of And Then There Were None swaps the island for which isolated setting?

A snowy mountaintop, reached by cable car, traps the guests in this version. It was also the first screen adaptation to show the murders themselves rather than just the bodies.

The 1974 film of And Then There Were None, starring Oliver Reed, strands its guests at a desert hotel in which country?

Iran provided the setting, a grand hotel beside the ruins of Persepolis, and Orson Welles supplied the voice of the unseen host. It was the first English-language version of the story made in colour.

Which famous actor was the uncredited voice of the unseen host in the 1965 film of And Then There Were None?

Christopher Lee is heard but never seen, charging each guest with a killing at exactly 9 p.m. The director, George Pollock, had earlier made four Miss Marple films with Margaret Rutherford.

Which actor played the judge in the BBC's 2015 three-part version of And Then There Were None?

Charles Dance led an ensemble that also included Sam Neill, Miranda Richardson and Aidan Turner. The BBC commissioned the serial to mark 125 years since Agatha Christie's birth.

Which country's 1987 film of And Then There Were None was unusual in keeping the novel's grim ending?

The Soviet Union's version, directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, left the characters and their crimes exactly as written. Earlier English-language films had borrowed the gentler stage ending instead.

Which Apple II game by Roberta Williams, often called the first graphical adventure, drew on And Then There Were None?

Mystery House began as a hobby project, with Roberta Williams drawing its seventy scenes herself. It sold by mail order and launched the company that became Sierra On-Line.

What major element of the novel did the 2005 PC game of And Then There Were None change?

The killer's identity is new, so even readers of the novel have to work it out, and the player controls a boatman who is not in the book. Finishing the game unlocks the original ending as a bonus.

Why did the first West End run of the And Then There Were None stage play stop after 260 performances in 1944?

Its theatre was bombed in February 1944, so the production moved to another West End house within days. It later went back to the repaired St James's to finish its run.

Which shady go-between buys the island and makes the arrangements for the killer in And Then There Were None?

Isaac Morris never sets foot on the island, yet he is a victim too. The killer gives him pills for his indigestion, and he dies of an overdose on the mainland.

What post is Vera Claythorne offered by letter to bring her to the island in And Then There Were None?

A secretary is what Mrs Owen supposedly needs, and Vera expects to start work on arrival. Every guest gets a different lure, from paid work to a reunion with old army friends.