BBC adapts Christie's Witness for the Prosecution

Agatha Christie is best known as the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple

Agatha Christie's murder mystery The Witness for the Prosecution is to be adapted for BBC One.

It follows the success of And Then There Were None last Christmas that drew critical acclaim and ratings of more than eight million.

The 1925 short story will be turned into a two-part adaptation by Sarah Phelps.

One of Christie's most popular stories it was turned into a successful stage play and a 1957 Billy Wilder film.

'Deceit, desire, murder, money and morality'

The story tells of rich heiress Emily French who is murdered with all the evidence pointing to a young chancer who she left her fortune to.

Phelps, who also adapted And Then There Were None said it was a compelling story.

"With the long, terrible shadow of the Great War falling across the rackety, feral 1920s, The Witness For The Prosecution is a compelling story of deceit, desire, murder, money and morality, innocence and guilt, heartbreak and - most painful and dangerous of all - love."

It is being produced by Mammoth Screen for the BBC - executive producer Karen Thrussell called it "an incendiary courtroom drama that will keep you guessing right to the very end".

"The source material is so strong, and we hope the end result will be every bit as striking as And Then There Were None," she said.

It will be directed by Julian Jarrold who directed Kinky Boots and Brideshead Revisited.

Casting has not yet been revealed.

Christie was born in 1890 and it was announced last year that the BBC was planning a series of programmes to mark the 125th anniversary of her birth.