Tea & Murder: An Agatha Christie Podcast

I have been an Agatha Christie fan for 30 years, and I’ve been an avid listener of the ‘All About Agatha’ podcast for several years now. So I was delighted to find ‘Tea and Murder’. I appreciate that Ms. Norman is not trying to recreate the wonderful format of ‘All About Agatha’. Overall, this is a great podcast for Christie fans, and I enjoy listening to anyone who loves to talk about Christie’s work as much as I do. I only have two reservations: (1) The sound quality of the guests is sometimes disappointing. For example, the recent interview with Christie scholar John Curran was very difficult to hear. This has been true on a few other occasions. Perhaps this is just a learning curve for the producer. (2) My other concern relates to one specific interview. I don’t want to be overly critical, but I did not enjoy hearing how much a guest hated ‘Cards on the Table’. The bulk of the guest’s criticism seemed to focus on the fact that Agatha Christie’s characters reflected many of the prejudices of their time, class, and nationality. All the Christie fans I know freely admit that there are statements and depictions in Christie’s books that feel stuck in their time. Sometimes it’s clear that Christie is putting offensive words into characters’ mouths. There are also times when it seems that the offensive comments and ideas line up quite closely with Christie’s own beliefs and ideas. I’m a politically liberal gay man, but I don’t expect writers from 80 years ago to perfectly align with all of my values. I read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Evelyn Waugh, Emily Dickinson, Hemingway, etc. and sometimes cringe at certain comments and attitudes. It was disappointing to tune into that particular episode and hear the guest complain non-stop about how much she hated reading ‘Cards on the Table.’ I often enjoy hearing the views of people who don’t like Christie or certain aspects of her work, but this particular guest didn’t say anything new or interesting or illuminating. It was just a torrent of derision. But I will keep listening!

So wonderful to hear your discussions about your guest’s favorite Agatha Christie stories! The podcasts are getting better and better! Can’t wait for the next episode.

As a huge Christie fan I was excited for this podcast, however, I find it very difficult to keep listening. The audio quality of the host and the guests are drastically different, so different in fact that I find myself turning up the volume to hear the guests and then turning it back down when the host talks. There is something very grating about how often and how clearly I can hear the host sucking their teeth and smacking their lips but can barely hear what the guests are saying. All the other audio issues I can deal with but the lip smacking/teeth sucking is maddening it’s like listening to someone eat in asmr.

I’ve tried listening to the first three episodes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to force myself to continue listening about three of my favorite Agatha Christie novels. The host’s audio quality is great, but for me each of the three guests are unlistenable. I’ll keep trying. I hope that the quality improves in subsequent episodes.