Tommy and Tuppence
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Tommy and Tuppence are two fictional detectives, recurring characters in the work of Agatha Christie. Their names are short for Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley. Other recurring detectives in Christie novels are Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.
The first time Tommy and Tuppence occurred in a Christie novel was in The Secret Adversary (1922). They started out their life as blackmailers (all in search of adventure and money), but the detecting life soon proved just as profitable and exciting.
Their other appearances were in Partners in Crime, a 1929 collection of short stories (each reminiscent of another writer's work); N or M?, a 1940s espionage novel; By the Pricking of My Thumbs; and Postern of Fate, the last novel Christie ever wrote (although not the last to be published).
Unlike many other recurring detective characters, Tommy and Tuppence aged in time with the real world, being in their early twenties in Secret Adversary and in their seventies in Postern of Fate. In their early appearances, they are portrayed as typical young adults of the 1920s, and the stories and settings have a more pronounced period-specific flavour than the better known Christie characters.
The Tommy and Tuppence characters have been portrayed on the small screen by James Warwick and Francesca Annis, first in the feature-length The Secret Adversary in 1982, followed by the 10 episode hour-long series Agatha Christie's Partners In Crime in 1983.
An adaptation of By the Pricking of My Thumbs appeared in 2006 as an episode of the Granada television series Agatha Christie's Marple. In this version, Tommy and Tuppence were played by Anthony Andrews and Greta Scacchi respectively.
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