'And Then There Were None' Tells A Classic Story

If your favorite beach read is filled with twists and turns, you're still obsessing over Serial, and Making A Murderer kept you up at night, then you may want to tune in to Lifetime's new miniseries. The network is airing the BBC's two-part adaptation of And Then There Were None starting this Sunday, and it's a twisted story that is guaranteed to keep you up at night — if you don't already know how this one ends, of course. This miniseries is a murder mystery that begins when 10 strangers are brought to an island by an elusive "host." Each person is accused of a horrific crime, and when the strangers start dying, they soon realize that there could be a murderer on the island as well. Though And Then There Were None is not a true story like some of the other thrillers Lifetime airs, it is based on one of the most famous murder mysteries of all time.

That's right, the BBC brought Agatha Christie's 1939 novel And Then There Were None to life in all its twisted glory, and now Lifetime is bringing it to the U.S. In the novel, the 10 strangers are each killed off one by one, each in a manner described by a poem. Spoilers for anyone not familiar with how And Then There None ends: At the conclusion, it is revealed that the murderer is actually one of the accused, who wanted to punish the others for a crime that he believed they did not serve their proper punishment for. According to Christie's official website, she was first compelled to write the fictional novel "because it was such a difficult plot to write effectively that the idea fascinated her."

And Then There Were None's unique plotting has inspired many adaptations, including films in 1945 and 1965. A play version of the novel was adapted by Christie herself in 1943, but according to her website the author altered the ending, and in that version two of the characters survived the horror and married one another. Though it's unclear just how closely the new TV miniseries sticks to Christie's source material, the trailer does seem to stay fairly faithful to the original work, including the original 1930s setting.

Here is hoping that this TV adaptation will pack the same punch that Christie's original novel did — it's still a classic for a reason.

Image: Mammoth Screen/Lifetime