| Tommy and Tuppence | |
|---|---|
 Illustration byArthur Ferrier of Tommy and Tuppence from the December 1923 issue ofThe Grand Magazine and the first-known image of the characters | |
| First appearance | The Secret Adversary |
| Last appearance | Postern of Fate |
| Created by | Agatha Christie |
| Portrayed by | |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male/Female |
| Occupation | Secret agents/private detectives |
| Family | Derek (son) Deborah (daughter) Betty (adopted daughter) |
| Nationality | British |
Tommy and Tuppence are two fictional detectives, recurring characters in the work ofAgatha Christie. Their full names are Thomas Beresford and his wife Prudence (née Cowley).Tommy and Tuppence first appeared in Christie'sThe Secret Adversary (1922).[1] They started out their career in search of adventure and money, and the detecting life soon proved profitable and very exciting.
Tuppence appears as a charismatic, impulsive, and intuitive person while Tommy is less imaginative and less likely to be diverted from the truth (as their first adversary sums him up: "he is not clever, but it is hard to blind his eyes to the facts") which is why they are shown to make a good team. It is in the first bookThe Secret Adversary that they meet up after the war (World War I),[2] and come to realise that, although they have been friends for most of their lives, they have now fallen in love with each other.
Unlike many other recurring detective characters, including the better known Christie detectives, Tommy and Tuppence aged in time with the real world, being in their early twenties inThe Secret Adversary[3] and in their seventies inPostern of Fate. In their early appearances, they are portrayed as typical young people of the 1920s,[4] and the stories and settings have a more pronounced period-specific flavor than other stories featuring more popular Christie characters. As they age, they are revealed to have raised three children – twins Deborah and Derek and an adopted daughter, Betty. Throughout the series they employ a man named Albert, who first appears as a lift boy who helps them inThe Secret Adversary, their hapless assistant at a private detective agency inPartners in Crime, and subsequently, as a now married pub owner, renders vital assistance to the pair inN or M?. ByPostern of Fate he has become the Beresfords' butler and has now been widowed. InPostern of Fate the Beresfords also own a small dog named Hannibal.
Thomas "Tommy" Beresford is introduced as a young redheaded Englishman who fought in theGreat War, wounded twice. Prudence L. "Tuppence" Cowley is introduced as a young woman with black bobbed hair. She is one of several children of a conservative archdeacon, and served in theVoluntary Aid Detachment during the Great War.
With the Great War over, jobs are scarce and both characters are unemployed. They are childhood friends and reunite after the war. They agree to start their own business as The Young Adventurers. They are soon hired by Mr Carter, a British intelligence leader. They are asked to search for Jane Finn, a survivor ofRMS Lusitania's sinking who disappeared along with documents of a secret treaty.
Following the successful conclusion of their first case, Tommy is chosen as the heir of a rich uncle. Having fallen in love during the case, Tommy and Tuppence are engaged to marry.
Their second recorded case has them hired by Mr Carter again, on behalf of a government intelligence agency. They are placed as the new owners of the International Detective Agency, a recently cleaned-out spy stronghold. Their real mission is to intercept enemy messages, but in the meantime they handle their agency's cases.
The two successfully apprehend No. 16, a Soviet spy, and then decide to give up the agency. At that point, Tuppence reveals to Tommy that she is pregnant.
Their third recorded case takes place duringWorld War II, and the couple has reached their middle age. They had retired from British intelligence long ago, and they were feeling sidelined. They are recruited by British intelligence again, to hunt German spies andfifth columnists. Their years out of service mean that they are unknown to traitors within British intelligence.
Their fourth case takes place when the two are a mature couple. Tommy's aunt Ada dies in the retirement home Sunny Ridge, and Ada's acquaintance Mrs Lancaster disappears soon afterwards. Tuppence is determined to locate the missing woman, and in the process learns of an unsolved series of child murders. Tuppence slowly realizes that she may be the killer's next victim.
Their fifth and last case takes place when the couple are elderly and at least in their 70s. They have reached their retirement years, and purchase an old house in a quiet village in order to live out their retirement in peace. But an old book within the house contains a coded message, concerning the "unnatural" death of Mary Jordan. The elderly couple decide to investigate acold case.
In 1953 the BBC adaptedPartners in Crimeas a radio series starringRichard Attenborough andSheila Sim.[5]
The Tommy and Tuppence characters have been portrayed on television byJames Warwick andFrancesca Annis, first in the feature-lengthThe Secret Adversary (1982), and then in the 10 episode seriesAgatha Christie's Partners in Crime (1983).[6]
The novelBy the Pricking of My Thumbs was adapted in 2005 by the French directorPascal Thomas with the titleMon petit doigt m'a dit.... The film castsAndré Dussolier as Tommy (renamed Bélisaire) andCatherine Frot as Prudence Beresford. The action is transposed toSavoie in France. A second filmLe crime est notre affaire, came out in 2008.Le crime est notre affaire is named afterPartners in Crime and stars the Beresfords, but its story is based on4.50 from Paddington, which was originally a novel starringMiss Marple. A third filmAssociés contre le crime is very, very loosely based (to the point of being unrecognisable) on one of the stories inPartners in Crime.
An adaptation ofBy the Pricking of My Thumbs appeared in 2006 as an episode of the Granada television seriesMarple even though Christie did not writeMiss Marple into the original story. In this version, Tommy and Tuppence were played byAnthony Andrews andGreta Scacchi respectively,[7] but, unlike in the book, Miss Marple and Tuppence play the detective roles while Tommy is away on intelligence (MI6) business.
In 2015BBC television airedPartners in Crime, it starredDavid Walliams as Tommy[8] andJessica Raine as Tuppence.[9]
