It wasn't until 1953 that the couple appeared in an English adaptation, this time on BBC Radio in a series of half-hour episodes adapted from the collection Partners in Crime. The Secret Adversary was the first Christie feature film ever made adapted by the Fox Film Corporation in 1928 as a silent movie for Germany titled 'Die Abenteuer G.m.b.H', which translates as ‘Adventures inc’. Their adventures take them through four novels and a short story collection, marrying at the end of the first book, The Secret Adversary, and going on to have three children: twins Derek and Deborah, and an adopted daughter called Betty. Their stories were the ones Agatha Christie enjoyed writing the most she took real pleasure from her bright young things, and they are the only detectives in Agatha Christie’s arsenal to age with each story, keeping approximate pace with Christie herself. Christie describes Tommy’s face as “pleasantly ugly – nondescript, yet unmistakably the face of a gentleman”. Tuppence often leads the way with her impetuous, charismatic nature, while Tommy’s slow, considered manner provides the perfect foil. It’s just after WW1 and jobs are very thin on the ground so Tuppence comes up with a plan to form 'Young Adventurers Ltd' - 'Willing to do anything. Young Tuppence Cowley bumps into old friend Tommy Beresford at Dover Street tube station.

The first Tommy and Tuppence adventure was published in 1922.

Partners in crime the secret adversary