If you love a good "whodunnit " crime drama then you'll enjoy this. It's well casted and brilliantly acted. Don't read too many reviews or plot spoilers, just watch it. You won't be disappointed. Pass the popcorn please!

One word sums it up - terrible. I don't know what's more shocking - the silly "reviewers" here who have never seen or read any iteration of Witness for the Prosecution, i.e. the people who like this monstrosity because they have no history and don't even know what the story, play, or subsequent film versions were about, or the fact that legitimate British reviewers heaped praise on this thing.So, let's just start at the beginning. You want to have the chutzpah to call something Agatha Christie's The Witness for the Prosecution, then don't make up the majority of the movie so that it has nothing to do with Agatha Christie. Sarah Phelps, shame on you - Ms. Christie doesn't need your dreary help and you can't even walk in her footsteps let alone her shoes. The teleplay is dreadful - all the additions are moronic. You know, I have no problem with this soap opera story but don't call it Agatha Christie or The Witness for the Prosecution just because you keep Ms. Christie's central plot element. This isn't going back to the short story, this is a whole NEW story and it's not a good story at that. The only thing that works is the twenty minutes or so of the trial. It just goes on and on, one dreadfully dull scene after another, filled with whispery acting and the awful coughing of Toby Jones (bronchitis we finally learn) - I don't blame him for coughing, mind you, given the amount of smoke they're pumping into every single shot and scene. It's not the 90s anymore, kids. And yes, the green - it's like watching Saw or something. Agatha Christie didn't write horror stories, you know. It's so dark and ugly and ineptly directed. Kim Cattrall is embarrassing in this as is her character, which has little to do with Ms. Christie's Emily French. The big finish doesn't happen where it should, the courtroom, because once the verdict happens the film goes on and on for yet another thirty minutes. The big finish occurs in France and then after that the film goes on and on for another fifteen minutes because this movie isn't about Leonard Vole or Emily French or Romaine Vole, it's about John Mayhew - sorry, does not compute, I don't care about the character and all his and his wife's angst - this is not Agatha Christie, this is Days of our Lives. I got the Blu-ray of this because of the reviews - fool me once, but never again.

Seeing a number of fine adaptations on stage in 2015,I was disappointed in missing out on a new mini-series version of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.Planning to catch up on films during the Christmas/New Year holiday,I was intrigued to find that a new mini-series of a lesser-known Christie was being shown,which led to me taking a seat in the witness box.The plot:Returning from WWI after joining the army with his son (who died in battle) solicitor John Mayhew goes round the prisons offering to work on cases at a low fee. Sticking his hands out of the bars, Leonard Vole cries for help. Struggling to cover costs with his wife Romaine Heilger,Vole becomes a "paid lover" for heiress Emily French,who has been found murdered. Seeing his son in Vole,Mayhew takes on a case where he will be judged by a prosecution on what he left behind.View on the mini-series:Coughed up in the aftermath of WWI, director Julian Jarrold lines the first ep and the outdoor scenes of the second in a thick green tint,which whilst subtly expressing the green with envy hidden in some and offering a touch of BBC Victorian Costume Drama atmosphere, drowns out all that try to rise above it. Playing on how people are perceived, Jarrold's green smog blocks out much of the facial details of the cast and the scope of the setting. Bringing a focus as Mayhew lays out the case,Jarrold peels away the green for a stylish gold which shines on the wealth that blinds Mayhew from the decayed envy retained underneath.Sending this adaptation to post-WWI,the screenplay by Sarah Phelps brilliantly dips into Film Noir pessimism,as Mayhew's battle to bring justice to this world can't stop him being wrapped with the shadows of failure from the past. Keeping Christie's original ruthless ending sharp,Phelps wonderfully lays out the entangled relationships between Mayhew,Vole & Heilger,which are deliciously twisted into a final that recalls the Giallo sub-genre corrupt bourgeoisie.Joined by a glamorous Kim Cattrall taking the Sex and the City socialites to a brutal death as French,the elegant Andrea Riseborough gives a fantastic performance as Heilger,whose brittle dialogue Riseborough smartly uses to carry an ambiguity with the character. Unable to free himself from the horrors of WWI, Toby Jones gives an excellent performance as Noir loner Mayhew,via Jones giving any sign of hope in Mayhew's life a harsh,isolated bitterness,as Mayhew becomes a witness to the wrong prosecution.

This is probably the worst BBC drama I have seen on the BBC and the BBC should think carefully about relying on the team responsible in the future. The story was thin, obvious and full of holes, it might have filled a 15 min short story but stretching it to 2 hrs was just excruciating. The coincidence at the end where the key protagonists all end up in the same holiday resort is just unbelievable from the story sense and the viewers credibility. I am not criticising the actors who all played the parts they were given well, and the production was good as one would expect from the BBC.