History Series / AndThenThereWereNone2015

** In Wargrave's flashback to [[spoiler:Seton's execution]], the man smirks at him before being hanged, even refusing the customary hood so Wargrave could see his face.

* LudicrousGibs: The copious amounts of blood and gore spraying the walls after [[spoiler: Wargrave's]] [[spoiler:faked]] murder were actually liver and kidneys stolen from the pantry.

** [[spoiler:In the series, Emily Brent casually remarks that Beatrice Taylor killed herself by jumping in front a moving train. In the novel, Beatrice drowns herself instead.]]

* BloodierAndGorier: In ''spades'' - not only are the deaths more bloody --([[spoiler:Brent]] goes from being jabbed with a syringe to outright stabbed in the neck with her own knitting needle)-- but several characters have hallucinations and dreams that expose their crimes in gruesome detail, particularly [[spoiler: Armstrong's nightmare]].

* CountingBullets: At the end, [[spoiler:the last survivor is hanging from a rope when the killer (who had [[FakingTheDead faked his own death]] earlier on to be BeneathSuspicion) reveals himself. She tries to convince him to rescue her because there are no more bullets for him to make [[ThanatosGambit his planned suicide]] appear as a murder, spoiling his plan to create an unsolveable mystery. He plays along for a bit before pulling out the chair from under her and pointing out that she forgot the one bullet that was earlier "used" on him, which he holds up]].

** Vera is much more frigid and cruel than she appeared to be in the original novel. In the book, she is wracked with guilt and slowly begins losing her mind as she comes to terms with what she has done, but in the miniseries it is strongly implied to all be an act of a vicious [[TheSociopath sociopath]]. Also, little Cyril's death at sea is now shown to be a cold and calculated murder, while in the book it was implied to be a spur-of-the-moment crime of passion.

* AllForNothing: Macathur's killing of Henry Richmond comes to this in the end, as his wife Leslie ends up dying of [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic]], leaving him alone with his guilt.

* AdaptationalJerkass: Dr. Armstrong is much less professional and meaner towards Vera when she accuses him of being U.N. Owen.

* ArmouredClosetGay: Heavily implied with Emily Brent. She keeps the fasçade of a pious and devout Christian spinster. However, underneath that, she appeared to have strong romantic feelings towards her young maid, Beatrice Taylor.

* StealthInsult: [[spoiler: Judge Wargrave, knowing the truth about Vera's crime,gives her an EXTREMELY stealthy one]] during the first dinner together when he mentions [[spoiler: Vera's]] students.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Player with. After Armstrong disappears, Vera surmises that he has faked his own death and is actually the murderer. [[spoiler: She's onto something here — someone has indeed faked his own death, but it's Warfield, not Armstrong]].

* RightForTheWrongReason: After Armstrong disappears, Vera surmises that he has faked his own death and is actually the murderer. She's onto something here — [[spoiler: someone has indeed faked his own death, but it's Wakefield, not Armstrong]].

* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Vera being given a tot of brandy to settle her nerves leads to the bottle being passed around the four remaining guests. Then when they find Wargrave's body, following which those who are still alive don't just hit what's left of the booze, they also dig out Marston's cocaine and put on some records so that they can at least have some laughs in what they're sure are their last hours alive. The recordsIt's suggested that they're trying to keep awake so they're not killed in their sleep.

* ShipperOnDeck: Cyril all but tells Vera that he supports her marrying his uncle because then she'd be his aunt. [[spoiler:It only adds to the horror when Vera allows him to drown.]]
* SleepingSingle: The group bursts into Marston's room to find Rogers all but under the bed. When questioned (at gunpoint, mind) Rogers brings out a folded-up camp-bed. They'd stored it under Marston's bed originally, because 'young gentlemen never look under the beds'; he intended to use it in a spare room. Given how he treated his wife during the brief time we see her alive, it's possible that Ethel insisted on separate beds. Or even that it was simply the only below-stairs bedroom with enough bed/s for two people. (U.N. Owen didn't want two of his killers/victims to have easy access for hanky-panky??)

* OffTheWagon: Armstrong is a recovering alcoholic and refuses wine at dinner. When they realize that the first couple of deaths are murders, though, he finds a flask and downs it in an unsuccessful effort to stop his panic attack. (To say nothing of the cocaine-and-booze binge in the third episode.)

* PragmaticAdaptation: The ending of the novel has [[spoiler:Vera hang herself in her guilt fueled daze and the killer's motivations and some of the details of his plans are explained through an epilogue in the form of a letter in a bottle Wargrave threw into the sea as a form of confession. To give the audience a more engaging ending, Wargrave instead confronts Vera as she's in the process of hanging herself so that he can both give his MotiveRant in person and actually kill her directly by pulling away the chair she was balancing on. In addition, his method for faking his 'murder' in the book involves a somewhat contrived apparatus to fling the gun out of his hands after he shoots himself. As this would look bizarre to witness first hand, the drama of the moment is preserved by having him simply position the gun such that his dying reflex flings it to the other end of the table he's sitting at]].

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[GenreSavvy Vera]] is the first to realise that the ten figurines on the dining table - which also feature in the opening credits - represent the ten little soldiers from the poem on the wall. She's also the first to notice they're disappearing at the same rate as guests are dying.

* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Vera being given a tot of brandy to settle her nerves leads to the bottle being passed around the four remaining guests. Then when they find Wargrave's body, they dig out Marston's cocaine and put on the phonograph so that they can at least have some laughs in what they're sure are their last hours alive. It's suggested that they're trying to keep awake so they're not killed in their sleep.

* TooDumbToLive: The booze-and-cocaine party when we're down to four surviving characters. Sure, folks, you're stuck on an island and for all you know, one of your three companions is homicidally around the bend and responsible for the six murdered bodies around the house. What better time to screw up your perception, judgment, and ability to react to a threat?

* DiesDifferentlyinAdaptation:

** The casual bigotry that was more socially accepted in 1939 is now reframed to foreshadow how unpleasant certain characters really are, such as the antisemitism leveled at Isaac Morris.

* PsychoLesbian: It's implied that Emily had feelings for Beatrice (who in this version is shown to have been underage), and dismissed her out of jealousy when Beatrice became pregnant.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: This trope is {{averted|Trope}} when several of the other, more sanctimonious guests try to chew out Lombard for ''his'' crime, (because he flat out admits it's all true almost immediately) as he points out (quite accurately) that they're all hypocrites. It is played straight, however, when just about everybody in the room is horrified that Anthony Marston thinks running down two children was bad luck for ''[[ItsAllAboutMe him]]'' because he got his license taken away for six months.

* SuspectExistenceFailure: [[spoiler: Happens to a number of the eventual victims, particularly Armstrong, who Lombard and Vera are completely convinced is the killer until they find his corpse.]]

---> '''U.N. Owen''': Maybe there's something in that. There are differences between [[spoiler: Seton]] and myself. All his victims were innocent. You are all guilty.
* VillainRespect: In the climax, U.N. Owen expresses admiration for his final victim's resourcefulness [[spoiler:before yanking the chair she's balancing herself on out from under her, leaving her to suffocate in a noose]].
-->'''U.N. Owen:''' [[spoiler:What a beguiling woman you are, Ms. Claythorne. ''Vera''. Quite my favorite, really.]]

* TruerToTheText: Along with the 1987 Soviet film, the BBC miniseries is the only adaptation that restores the EverybodyDiesEnding and deep cynicism of the original novel.

* CriticalStaffingShortage: Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are the only staff in the house and expected to serve three hot meals a day, along with every other household task, to eight other people.

** Surprisingly enough, U.N. Owen lampshades this when referring to his own actions. Whilst he ''is'' a serial killer, he points out that all of his victims are ''killers'' themselves. In other words, Owen never harmed an innocent person. He is simply giving the guilty their [[PayEvilUntoEvil punishment]].

** It's blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but Blore is shown going over the list of guests he's been given in his letter. He writes 'Fenian' next to Phillip Lombard's name, and at one point claims that Lombard's the obvious suspect because he's Irish, and out to kill all English. Probably, a PragmaticAdaptation / RealLifeWritesThePlot due to Aiden Turner being Irish.

** [[spoiler:Wargrave tells Vera that his terminal cancer is "extraordinarily painful" but gives no indication of it other than telling her so.]]

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When being questioned by Lombard about where he was at the time of [[spoiler: Rogers]] death, Blore admits he was in the lavatory, constipated. This makes the rest of the survivors break down laughing, breaking some of the tension.

* AdaptationalIntelligence: Lombard establishes himself as a hunter who completely understands the situation they're in, compared to how it's implied he's just a pragmatic ThrillSeeker in the book. He also points out that [[NotSoDifferentRemark he and Vera are not so different]] in how they [[spoiler:killed for profit, even if Vera denies it]]. [[spoiler:He knows Vera isn't the killer when Blore is killed while they're both outside and he told her to stay on the rocks, giving her an alibi. Ergo, the killer isn't either of them. It's not enough to save him when he tries to reason with Vera, and aptly says the killer is still on the island and hunting them]].

** Lombard changes from a man who abandoned his followers to starve in the name of self-preservation to one who [[spoiler:burned a village to steal diamonds]]. Interestingly, Lombard's line that he was either "embellishing a story for shocking effect, or I'm the only one telling the truth in a room full of liars," indirectly references Christie's 1943 theatre adaptation inversion of this trope, where it is revealed at the end [[spoiler:Lombard didn't actually kill the Africans (he went ahead to find help and didn't come back in time) despite admitting it after the gramophone indictment. It turned out that he embellished the story just for the sheer joy of watching everyone's faces react to his admission.]]

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: The killer's long and detailed confession is distilled into a five-minute long conversation. While it leaves in the explanation for their motives, as well as [[spoiler:how they faked their own death and killed Armstrong,]] any details on how the crime was planned and how they killed everyone undetected is left to the viewer's imagination.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: Rogers]] notices the platter of liver and kidneys is gone from the storeroom. The same platter is [[spoiler: used to create the "gore"when Wargrave fakes his death.]]

* CountingBullets: At the end, [[spoiler:the last survivor is hanging from a rope when the killer (who had [[FakingTheDead faked his own death]] earlier on to be BeneathSuspicion) reveals himself. She tries to convince him to rescue her because there are no more bullets for him to make [[ThanatosGambit his planned suicide]] appear as a murder, spoiling his plan to create an unsolveable mystery. He plays along for a bit before pulling out the chair from under her and pointing out that she forgot the one bullet that was earlier "used" on him, which he holds up.]]

* DidntWantAnAdventure: Wargrave notes dryly that his stay on the island was supposed to be recuperation after his cancer surgery. Of course [[spoiler:the {{Irony}} is that he's the reason why everyone is there.]]

** Subverted with [[spoiler:Vera. It looks like she's going to face her death with dignity by calmly hanging herself with a hallucination of Cyril looking on, until Wargrave's unexpected appearance causes her to slip from the chair she's standing on and spend the last few minutes of her life as a panicked mess [[AintTooProudToBeg desperately trying to get Wargrave to save her]] before the noose completely tightens around her neck.]]

** U. N. Owen gives one to the last victim: [[spoiler:She's trapped in the noose, struggling for balance on an overturned chair, when he arrives. She tries to convince him to spare her. He compliments her, tells her she's his favourite... and then pulls the chair away.]]
* HoistbyHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Lombard is adamant about keeping hold of his revolver, seeming to believe that if he's armed, he's untouchable. When the gun is mysteriously returned to him after Armstrong disappears, he thinks nothing of it, and is just pleased to have it in his possession. Blore attempts to convince him to get rid of it, but Lombard refuses. Because he keeps it on his person for the remainder of the film, Vera is easily able to steal it from him when he's distracted by moving Armstrong's body, and Lombard ends up getting shot and killed by Vera with his own gun. ]]

-->'''Lombard:''' So either I'm embellishing a story for shocking effect, or I'm the only one telling the truth in a room full of ''liars''.

* {{Irony}}:
** When Vera gets worked up in the first episode and a half over the unsettling atmosphere and seemingly innocent deaths, Dr. Armstrong coolly accuses her of being hysterical. In the last episode and a half, when it's really set in that someone intends to kill them all, Vera enters a [[DissonantSerenity very creepy state of Zen]], while Armstrong grows hysterical.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: Most of Vera's flashbacks to the day Cyril died show her running in haste and screaming after him to stop. [[spoiler:What actually happened was she suggested he swim to the rock like he always wanted, and in fact took her time running and swimming after him. Something that Hugo calls her out on because he knows she could outrun Cyril at any point]].

* PragmaticAdaptation: The ending of the novel has [[spoiler:Vera hang herself in her guilt fueled daze and the killer's motivations and some of the details of his plans are explained through an epilogue in the form of a letter in a bottle Wargrave threw into the sea as a form of confession. To give the audience a more engaging ending, Wargrave instead confronts Vera as she's in the process of hanging herself so that he can both give his MotiveRant in person and actually kill her directly by pulling away the chair she was balancing on. In addition, his method for faking his 'murder' in the book involves a somewhat contrived apparatus to fling the gun out of his hands after he shoots himself. As this would look bizarre to witness first hand, the drama of the moment is preserved by having him simply position the gun such that his dying reflex flings it to the other end of the table he's sitting at.]]

* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Vera being given a tot of brandy to settle her nerves leads to the bottle being passed around the four remaining guests. Then when they find Wargrave's body, they dig out Marston's cocaine and put on the phonograph so that they can at least have some laughs in what they're sure are their last hours alive.
** It's suggested that they're trying to keep awake so they're not killed in their sleep.

* ShipperOnDeck: Cyril all but tells Vera that he supports her marrying his uncle because then she'd be his aunt. [[spoiler:It only adds to the horror when Vera allows him to drown]].

* TheBadGuyWins: And how. Not only does U.N. Owen successfully manage to execute their carefully thought out scheme, they manage to get away with it in the end, due to being ... well, dead.

* UndeadChild: Vera hallucinates Cyril haunting her, even [[spoiler:accompanying her to the noose that's been prepared in her room.]]

* VillainRespect: In the climax, U.N. Owen expresses admiration for his final victim's resourcefulness [[spoiler:before yanking the chair she's balancing herself on out from under her, leaving her to suffocate in a noose.]]

* WhamShot: When the last survivor goes to hang herself, someone else opens the door. The person is shown with a waist-level shot that pans up to reveal that [[spoiler:Justice Wargrave was the killer.]]
* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:Though he claimed that his surgery was successful earlier, Wargrave's cancer is terminal. Knowing this, he decided to spend his remaining days indulging in his desire for karmic execution of some very guilty people, and then takes his own life while he is still relatively well and able to do so with dignity]].

** It's suggested that they're trying to keep awake so they're not killed in their sleep, which is [[spoiler: (apparently) exactly what happens to Wargrave, who does not join in.]]