Gray and Mark head to beautiful Belfast to chat to novelist and Agatha Christie fan Jan Carson. Jan has been tackling the Troubles in her work for some time, and we want to discuss with her Christie’s Troubles references in Passenger to Frankfurt, as well as Irish characters and references in other Swinging books - all the way from The Pale Horse to By the Pricking of My Thumbs!

A handful of tickets are still available⁠ for our first ever live episode recording in Torquay this September as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival 2025!

You can find us on Instagram ⁠@Christie_Time⁠. We are also on Bluesky at ⁠christietime.bsky.social⁠. Our YouTube account is @TheSwigingChristies. 

Please subscribe to the podcast so you’re notified every time an episode drops!

Please also consider giving us a star rating and/or reviewing us on your podcatcher of choice.

Our website is ⁠ChristieTime.com⁠.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: we’re going global… again…!

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:47 - Introductory chat in Belfast

00:02;46 - Interview with Jan Carson and discussion of Ireland in the Swinging Christies

00:37;58 - The Troubles

00:52:46 - Next episode, how to get in touch

00:54:03 - Closing titles

00:54:31 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - The Pale Horse, At Bertram’s Hotel, Endless Night, Passenger to Frankfurt

TW: Racist and xenophobic language quoted

Two wickedly witty women writers, separated only by the Atlantic! This episode, Gray and Mark carry on their American adventures and discuss the similarities and differences between the works of Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson. Specifically focussing on Shirley’s Swinging era - The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle!

A handful of tickets are still available⁠ for our first ever live episode recording in Torquay this September as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival 2025!

You can find us on Instagram ⁠@Christie_Time⁠. We are also on Bluesky at ⁠christietime.bsky.social⁠. Our YouTube account is @TheSwigingChristies. 

Please subscribe to the podcast so you’re notified every time an episode drops!

Please also consider giving us a star rating and/or reviewing us on your podcatcher of choice.

Our website is ⁠ChristieTime.com⁠.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: we’re heading to Belfast!

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:40 - Introductory chat, recorded in Greenwich, New York

00:05:40 - Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson

00:20:25 - Swinging Shirley work-by-work

01:03:00 - Next episode, how to get in touch

01:05:02 - Closing titles

01:05:30 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - Five Little Pigs, Third Girl

Mrs Christie went to Washington, and Dr Aldridge and Mr Brown are following suit! This episode, we get the train to Washington DC to uncover the truth about how an American Christie fan would REALLY have experienced a Swinging Christie…

A handful of tickets are still available⁠ for our first ever live episode recording in Torquay this September as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival 2025!

You can find us on Instagram ⁠@Christie_Time⁠. We are also on Bluesky at ⁠christietime.bsky.social⁠.

Please subscribe to us, and  rate and review us on your podcatcher of choice.

Our website is ⁠ChristieTime.com⁠.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: we look at Agatha Christie alongside a contemporary - Shirley Jackson!

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:43 - Introductory chat

00:01:44 - Agatha, Washington and America in the 1960s, down the Mall 

00:09:41 - Discoveries in the Library of Congress

00:43:37 - Wrap up, the National Museum of African American History and Culture

00:47:24 - Next episode, how to get in touch

00:49:09 - Closing titles

00:49:36 - Coda

Mark and Gray take Manhattan in the first in this very special miniseries recorded in the USA. In New York, Gray and Mark discuss Agatha’s 1960s connections to America, plus their discoveries in papers held at the Princeton University Archive.

A handful of tickets are still available for our first ever live episode recording in Torquay this September as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival 2025!

You can find us on Instagram @Christie_Time. We are also on Bluesky at christietime.bsky.social.

Please subscribe to us, and  rate and review us on your podcatcher of choice.

Our website is ChristieTime.com.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: Part 2 of Swinging USA - we go to Washington DC!

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:40 - Introductory chat at Heathrow airport

00:03:57 - Agatha and America in the 1960s at Central Park

00:32:38 - Discoveries in the Princeton Archive

00:55:49 - Wrap up, Schubert Archive, and off to Washington DC!

00:58:30 - How to get in touch

00:59:41 - Closing titles

01:00:12 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - Cat Among the Pigeons, The Clocks, The Pale Horse, At Bertram’s Hotel

Mark and Gray travel to India (metaphorically) in search of the Queen of Crime! Along the way, they discuss various Hindi and Bengali adaptations, and meet with friend-of-the-podcast and expert adaptor/writer Ayeesha Menon to discuss her Mumbai stage version of The Mirror Crack’d!

You can find us on Instagram @Christie_Time. We are on Bluesky at christietime.bsky.social. Please do subscribe, rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Our website is ChristieTime.com.

Ayeesha Menon can be found via her production company ⁠Goldhawk Productions⁠. Her excellent drama podcast ⁠Mumbai Crime⁠ is available on all good podcatchers.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: stay tuned…!

0:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:41 - Introductory chat

00:06:25 - Agatha and India

00:14:57 - Chupi Chupi Aashey (1960 Bengali version of The Mousetrap)

00:29:51 - Gumnaam (1965 Hindi version of And Then There Were None)

00:39:42 - Shubho Mahurat (2003 Bengali version of The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side)

00:56:12 - Interview with Ayeesha Menon, adaptor of The Mirror Crack’d for the Mumbai stage

01:45:12 - How to get in touch

01:46:35 - Closing titles

01:47:02 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. NOT THE MOUSETRAP! We would never!

TW: discussion of struggle with fertility, miscarriage, IVF etc.

Miss Marple isn’t an old duffer - she’s a swinging cat! At least that’s what Mark and Gray discover this episode when they shine a light on Agatha Christie’s beloved sleuth.

In particular we look at her 1960s outings, plus her Swinging-era cases in the recent 2021 short story collection, in stories by Alyssa Cole, Naomi Alderman, Jean Kwok, Dreda Say Mitchell, Karen M. McManus and Leigh Bardugo.

You can find us on Instagram @Christie_Time. We are on Bluesky at christietime.bsky.social. Please do subscribe, rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Our website is ChristieTime.com.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: we travel to India!

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:50 - Introductory chat

00:07:00 - Why the Sixties belong to Miss Marple

00:15:09 - The Swinging-era Marple: Twelve New Stories

00:19:01 - Miss Marple Takes Manhattan by Alyssa Cole

00:29:20 - The Open Mind by Naomi Alderman

00:41:45 - The Jade Empress by Jean Kwok

00:44:43 - A Deadly Wedding Day by Dreda Say Mitchell

00:52:44 - The Murdering Sort by Karen M. McManus

00:58:26 - The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo

01:04:59 - Tackling racism in these stories

01:16:17 - How to get in touch

01:17:17 - Closing titles

01:17:44 - Coda

TW: discussion of racism and antisemitism

A talented British author, a story about machinations in a girls’ school… How much do Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark have in common? Mark and Gray investigate…

Featuring (from 5 mins in) a recording of a talk originally given by Gray for Romancing the Gothic, with kind permission of Dr Sam Hirst.

You can read our special article for the Agatha Christie website here.

You can find us on Instagram (as well as X) @Christie_Time. We are on Bluesky at christietime.bsky.social. Please do rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Our website is ChristieTime.com.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: stay tuned…!

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:53 - Introductory chat

00:05:00 - Gray’s Muriel Spark talk

00:38:24 - Mark and Gray debrief

00:57:21 - How to get in touch

00:58:58 - Closing titles

00:59:26 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - The Plymouth Express, Witness for the Prosecution, Lord Edgware Dies, Towards Zero

Sparks spoiled! - The Driver’s Seat, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

TW: violence against women

Mark and Gray ring in the New Year with a discussion of the 1960s trend for… actually not being very 1960s at all! But just how much of Christie’s 1960s writing harks back to the Edwardian and Victorian eras? Did they even ‘swing’ back then??

You can listen to our guest spot on the All About Agatha podcast, here.

You can read our special article for the Agatha Christie website here.

You can read Mark’s paper about Agatha Christie’s Charles Dickens’s Bleak House here.

You can find us on Instagram (as well as X) @Christie_Time. We are on Bluesky at christietime.bsky.social. Please do rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Our website is ChristieTime.com.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: wait and see…

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:51 - Introductory chat

00:04:29 - The Sixties weren’t Swinging for everyone

00:15:38 - Old-new locations

00:58:02 - The Next Generation

01:04:28 - Servants and service

01:14:44 - Reviving the greats: Shakespeare, Tennyson, Austen, Brontë

01:22:37 - Bleak House by Agatha Christie

01:33:57 - Brave monkey puzzle: remembering Christie’s childhood home

01:37:22 - Next episode, how to get in touch

01:38:33 - Closing titles

01:39:01 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, At Bertram’s Hotel

There’s always Christie at Christmas! Join Mark and Gray making the yuletide gay with a discussion about Christie’s festive writings from the 1960s. Come swing around the Christmas tree!

You can read our special article for the Agatha Christie website here.

You can find us on Instagram (as well as X) @Christie_Time. We are on Bluesky at christietime.bsky.social. Please do rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Our website is ChristieTime.com. 

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: Revivalism

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:43 - Introductory chat

00:07:24 - A Christie for Christmas: a tale as old as time?

00:16:40 - Agatha Christiemas

00:20:20 - Christmas Then and Now - from Christmas Adventure (1923) to The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960)

00:28:26 - The Mysteries of the Spanish and Baghdad Chests (1932, 1960)

00:32:46 - Star Over Bethlehem (1965)

00:39:46 - Next episode, how to get in touch

00:41:27 - Closing titles

00:41:54 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - Star Over Bethlehem (titular story from the Star Over Bethlehem collection)

In a very special episode, join Mark and Gray as they delve deep into Agatha Christie’s family archive and uncover some seldom-seen 1960s gems…

You can find us on Instagram (as well as X) @Christie_Time. We are on Bluesky at christietime.bsky.social. Please do rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Our website is Christietime.com.

The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown.

Next episode: it's Christmas!

00:00:00 - Opening titles

00:00:39 - Introductory chat at the train station

00:01:50 - We arrive at the archive!

00:05:30 - Death Beat

00:31:44 - Miss Perry

00:58:53 - Other archive gems, Agatha Christie’s writing process

01:12:46 - Back at Paddington, how to get in touch

01:14:29 - Closing titles

01:14:57 - Coda

Solutions revealed! - Endless Night

TW: violence against women