There has been a mixed reaction to BBC Maestro’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agatha Christie which sees the world’s most famous crime novelist ‘teaching’ the tricks of her trade to would-be crime writers. Some have hailed it as wonderfully creative, others as “a bit Frankenstein”.
According to the Bookseller, an actor, whose face and voice have been adapted by AI to resemble Christie’s, shares the crime writer’s process in 11 lessons on BBC Maestro – a platform that includes courses by living authors, including Harlan Coben and Jojo Moyes.
Dr Mark Aldridge, whose books on Christie were published by HarperCollins, drew on her autobiography, correspondence, interviews and other source material to write the course script. “I had some reservations. It did feel like an exciting opportunity as it offered a chance to cement Christie’s legacy as an outstanding and influential writer,” he said in the course notes.
“However, it seemed to me that it would need not only a lot of work but also a willingness from everyone involved to take a step into the unknown when it came to using new technology for the delivery of the lessons – so they would look and sound just like Agatha herself.”
The Maestro team worked closely with Christie’s great-grandson, James Prichard, who is the CEO of Agatha Christie Ltd, as well as his father, Mathew Prichard. Aldridge admits to having “lightly paraphrased” Christie’s words to “help the script flow better” before the author’s voice was generated by AI voice company Respeecher. Her face was overlaid on top of the actor’s by a visual effects team.
The result is an engaging set of writing lessons in which Christie appears happy to pass on tips on plotting, character and setting. Her great-grandson told BBC World at One that when he showed it to his father, he found the results at times “uncannily like [his granny]”. James Prichard added: “I think it’s an incredibly good representation.”
