Fiddlers Three (play)
play written by Agatha Christie

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.
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.
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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.
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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.