The characters in Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero are all a mess, as is not uncommon in Agatha Christie adaptations. But that provided fertile ground for stars Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Ella Lily Hyland, who lead the British television miniseries. The duo portray Nevile Strange and his ex-wife Audrey, who can’t seem to get out of each other’s way — even though Nevile cheated on Audrey with another woman whom he’s since married.
As Towards Zero arrives on BritBox, CBR spoke to Hyland and Jackson-Cohen about the complexities of their characters. Jackson-Cohen compared Nevile Strange’s romantic life to the problems faced by James Ellis, the character he plays in the Apple TV+ original series Surface, which just ended its second season by breaking James’ heart. And Hyland revealed how the role of Audrey Strange challenged her in ways that made her both excited and nervous.
CBR: Oliver, one of the fun aspects of Towards Zero is that it’s airing so soon after audiences saw Surface Season 2, in which you also play a character who has a complicated relationship with the woman he loves. How would you compare Nevile’s character to James?
Oliver Jackson-Cohen: Wthout giving too much away, it’s a lot darker. I feel like there is a depth of depravity that goes on in Towards Zero that is not necessarily as present in Surface. But I would like to say that neither character are close to me as a human being. So let’s put that down as a baseline. [Laughs.]
Years ago, I did this film called The Invisible Man, and I played a psychopath. And one of the interviews was like, first question — how do you relate to your character? And I was like, you don’t. [Laughs.] I would be psychotic.
Ella, what appealed to you about the character of Audrey Strange? Was there something specific that made you want to play her?
Ella Lily Hyland: Kind of what Ollie’s saying — someone who’s so different to you is so enticing to play like for so many reasons. Their way of thinking, their kind of culture, the [1930s] era obviously is such a huge, huge part of it. And I think it was just fun. She felt really far away from me. And it’s almost something that I was like, oh God, I don’t even know if I could do that. She’s quite masked, and I’m the opposite.
Jackson-Cohen: There’s an incredible kind of stoic coldness to her that is really quite powerful.
Hyland: Yeah. I don’t even know if I know anyone like that. I guess there’s a coldness, but there’s just an inability to show how she feels. And I think that’s such a challenge. I always feel like the easiest thing to do in acting is cry or laugh… My default is to feel my feelings. But I think with her, it was such a challenge against that, which I was like okay, I want to be able to do that. And her just being so glamorous as well.
The original novel Towards Zero was written in the 1940s, and there are some significant changes in Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero. So how much were you interested in the source material, versus the script and characters that you were given?
Jackson-Cohen: It’s always really interesting when you’re dealing with an adaptation, because the source material can sometimes be incredibly important and and give these sort of hidden clues. I think it’s very interesting when you’re dealing with a whodunit and the sort of murder mystery — because what you don’t want to do is you don’t want to fall into a trap of trying to drag something that’s in the source material that hasn’t quite translated into the adaptation, and it feel like a red herring in some way or something that doesn’t belong.
For me on this, I started reading the book, and then I thought actually, I feel like I’m going to get ideas in here that I don’t really want to cloud with the Neville that that’s been adapted… The adaptation that Rachel [Bennette] had written, and the collaboration between Sam Yates, our director, and us felt like the most fruitful thing to invest in, rather than going back to source material. But that, again, is project-specific. Sometimes it’s really valuable to go back to the source material.
Because this is a whodunit, both Nevile and Audrey have the finger pointed at them in different times across Towards Zero. How fun is it to play those heightened emotional moments that are central to any great murder mystery?
Jackson-Cohen: It’s quite intense. The fact that it’s three episodes as well; it is compact… It’s quite the journey you’re taking within sort of three hours, and it’s quite a big story to tell as well, within those three hours. So I think the intensity of some of it ramps up to quite a crescendo. All of that stuff is so much fun to play.
And I think [Ella and I have] spoken about this — about the dynamic between Neville and Audrey and playing that out. This kind of constant, toxic game that they’re playing, but no one really knows the rules, and they keep rewriting the rules, is a really interesting thing to get to play.
Hyland: It almost feels like a bit of a relief sometimes when it reaches that tension, because you’re kind of holding a thread taut for the whole way, and then when there’s cracks like that, it’s like a relief… They’re really fun to play.
To that point, Towards Zero revels in the conflict between Nevile, Audrey and Nevile’s new wife Kay Elliott-Strange, played by Mimi Keene — particularly the hostility between Audrey and Kay. What was that dynamic like to portray?
Hyland: I loved it. I thought it was fascinating. And I think there’s a curiosity that the girls both have of each other — but also a hatred and a rage and [they’re] having to bottle that all up and and kind of play off each other. How it comes out, even how we look at each other across the table, it was so much fun to play and really informative. Those three characters’ relationships to each other [were] really informative and fun, and one person’s actions would change the course of the dynamic. It was really kind of sensitive, and I loved it.
Jackson-Cohen: It’s a testament to Agatha Christie, and also to Rachel, and obviously Ella and Mimi that it’s not just whittled down to catty jealousy… It’s sort of all of these different things, which are all incredibly human. I just think it’s so complex and nuanced, and not just your sort of lowest common denominator of a love triangle playing out.
The first episode of Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero is now streaming on BritBox, with the remaining two episodes streaming on April 17 and April 18, 2025.
