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Fiddlers Three (play)

play written by Agatha Christie

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ3446024 ↗
Source-derived summary

Fiddlers Three is a play written by Agatha Christie in 1972.

It was first written as Fiddlers Five, under which title it toured successfully in 1971, after opening at Southsea on 7 June. The following year, the revised version toured briefly after its premiere at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford on 1 August, with Doris Hare and Raymond Francis heading the cast. This production was directed by Allan Davis, with sets designed by Anthony Holland and lighting by Michael Saddington.

Christie had pushed for the play to be performed, much against the wishes of her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, who was protective of her mother's reputation and felt that this piece would damage it. The revised version incorporated several suggestions from Davis, who had seen the previous 1971 version.

Despite touring more extensively in 1973, this time directed by Jan Butlin, with Peggy Mount starring opposite Raymond Francis, the play never transferred to the West End.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Fiddlers Three (play)” is play written by Agatha Christie. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Fiddlers, Three and play, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1972, 1971, 1973—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Fiddlers, Three and play is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “play written by Agatha Christie” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3446024. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1971 and 1973.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Fiddlers Three (play)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Fiddlers Three (play) primary sources, Fiddlers Three (play) archive and Fiddlers research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fiddlers Three (play)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Fiddlers Three (play)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.