Daisy Ridley to star as Agatha Christie’s love rival in film on the Queen of Crime’s disappearance 

She played a glamorous governess in the blockbuster adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express.

Now Daisy Ridley, who shot to fame in the Star Wars franchise, is to star as the mistress of the Queen of Crime’s husband in a new fact-based drama.

The TV series will tell the story of Christie’s mysterious disappearance in 1926. She vanished for 11 days after her husband was revealed to be having an affair, sparking an international hunt.

Glamorous: Daisy Ridley, who shot to fame in the Star Wars franchise, is to star as the mistress of the Queen of Crime’s husband in a new fact-based drama. Pictured: Ridley in Murder On The Orient Express

The author’s Morris Cowley car was found abandoned with her clothes inside near a chalk quarry at Newlands Corner in Surrey, and it was feared she may have drowned in a pool or been murdered.

Ridley, 30, plays Colonel Archibald Christie’s mistress Nan O’Dea in the new Miramax series. In real life, she was called Nancy Neele.

The actress will also executive produce the series, which is being adapted from Nina de Gramont’s hit novel The Christie Affair. London-born Ridley was among the all-star cast in Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 remake of Murder On The Orient Express.

Mystery: The cover of the Daily Sketch announced the safe return of British crime novelist Agatha Christie (1890-1976), who had been missing for eleven days on December 15, 1926

Christie was finally discovered 11 days after she went missing, hiding out in a hotel in Yorkshire. She was registered at the hotel under the name of her husband’s lover. She never discussed her disappearance and died aged 85 in 1976.

Marc Helwig, from Miramax TV, said: ‘Daisy is one of the most captivating and talented actors working today, and we’re excited for her to bring Nina de Gramont’s fascinating Nan O’Dea to life.’