Ils Etaient Dix (English: They Were Ten) is a six-part French language miniseries produced by M6 and aired in 2020. It is an adaptation of Agatha Christie's best-selling 1939 novel And Then There Were None.
Set in the present day French Carribean, the series, much like the source material and its previous adaptations, features ten people (military veteran Xavier Troussard, businessman Giles Delfour, ex-cop Eve Lombardi, surgeon Victoria Deshotel, spiritual guru Vincent Del Piero, botanist Nina Goldberg, saleswoman Kelly Nesib, aid-worker Malik Alaoui, caretaker Eddy Hamraoui and cook Myriam Berto) invited to a deserted island, isolated from the rest of the world. They soon realize that they were drawn into a trap. Each of them is a murderer, and they have been lured to the island to finally pay for their crimes. It's up to police officers Mathieu Le Goff and Leonie Batista to piece together what happened on the island when they arrive a few days later.
This series provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Possibly a consequence of the characters lacking the Stiff Upper Lip of their early 20th century British counterparts from the original novel. The ten victims start to get visibly unhinged and traumatized as the killings continue unabated, and in some cases, even resort to violence against each other with little real provocation. A lot of the crimes committed in their backstories are even more brutal and tragic than the ones from the novel. Some of the victims are psychologically tortured by the murderer long before their deaths through the use of mementos and items that evoke the crimes for which they're being punished.
- Adaptation Expansion: The series maintains a significant focus on the two detectives trying to piece together what's happening/happened to the ten. We are also given extended flashbacks to the backstories of the ten, and the circumstances that led each of them to cause someone's death.
- Adapted Out: The nursery rhyme, which forms the framework for the murders in most other versions of the story, is completely missing from this adaptation.
- Adaptational Villainy: Happens to some of the characters.
- In the novel, General Macarthur only indirectly causes the death of his wife's lover, by sending him on a hopeless mission. In the series, his counterpart Xavier Troussard more directly causes his wife's lover's death by replacing the blank rounds with live ammunition on a cadet's weapon during a training exercise.
- The novel's Phillip Lombard also indirectly caused death by abandoning natives to starve. Malik Alaoui runs over someone with a stolen car and deliberately chooses not to call the police or an ambulance, leading to his victim's death. He then proceeds to frame the person whose car he stole, an 18 year old who subsequently commits suicide in custody.
- Inverted in the case of Victoria Deshotel. In the novel, Dr. Armstrong was guilty of involuntary manslaughter by virtue of operating on someone while intoxicated and causing the patient's death. Victoria also causes a patient's death on the operating table, albeit not due to intoxication but simply because she was inexperienced yet stubbornly insisted on carrying out the operation herself. Even the second death she causes, that of her father through a heart attack, was unintentional.
- Bastard Angst: Victoria Deshotel is the illegitimate daughter of a renowned surgeon. She followed in his footsteps and joined his clinic, determined to become a part of his life and win his respect and approval. This ultimately leads to tragic consequences for both of them.
- Blackmail Backfire: Vincent's personal assistant Patrice tries to blackmail him by threatening to leak photos of his illicit encounters with underaged girls. This leads to Vincent strangling him to death.
- Composite Character/ Decomposite Character: Victoria Deshotel and Kelly Nesib are both based on Dr. Armstrong from the novel. The latter also includes elements of Ilona Morgan, Emily Brent's counterpart from some film adaptations. See Expy below for more details.
- A Death in the Limelight: The episode in which a character dies includes flashbacks that significantly flesh out his/her backstory and reveals the past crime that he/she is being punished for.
- Driven to Suicide: Nina Goldberg, just like Vera Claythorne in the novel.
- Also, the young man Malik frames for a hit-and-run death, who commits suicide in police custody the following day - becoming the second victim whose death Malik is responsible for.
- Evolving Credits: In the opening credits of every episode, the actors of all the characters who've died so far are crossed out in red.
- Expy: Each of the ten is based, to varying degrees, on a character from the original novel.
- Nina Goldberg is based on Vera Claythorne, right down to being a child murderer and the Final Girl on the island.
- Malik Alaoui is loosely based on Phillip Lombard, in terms of leaving his victim to die, being a possible love interest for Nina/Vera as in some adaptations, and being killed by her. He is also similar to Anthony Marston, in that he killed someone in a hit-and-run.
- Xavier Troussard is based on General Macarthur - a military veteran who discovered that his wife was cheating on him with a fellow soldier, and goes on to orchestrate the death of the latter.
- Myriam Berto resembles Mrs. Rogers in that she was lured to the island as a staff-member, but that's where the similarities end.
- Eddy Hamraoui like Mr. Rogers was lured to the island as a staff-member, but differs from him completely in other respects.
- Eve Lombardi is based on Justice Wargrave. Which of course means that she is the murderer responsible for the killings on the island. She is also similar to William Blore, being a former police officer.
- Victoria Deshotel is based on Dr. Armstrong - a surgeon who inadvertantly killed someone on the operating table, though the circumstances in her case were different.
- Kelly Nesib combines elements of Ilona Morgan - Emily Brent's counterpart in some film versions - a beautiful woman who causes the death of her male partner and Dr. Armstrong, as the one who helps the murderer fake his/her death.
- Vincent Del Piero is similar to William Blore in that he frames an innocent man for a crime, but is a completely different character otherwise.
- Giles Delfour could be considered a counterpart of Anthony Marston, in that he committed his murder when he was young, but otherwise has no resemblance to any character from the novel.
- In addition, Jimmy is based on Issac Morris and Detectives Le Goff and Batista stand in for the Scotland Yard officials seen at the end of the original novel.
- Frame-Up: Four of the ten did this in the past. Malik framed a young man for a hit-and-run death he caused with the latter's stolen car. Vincent framed a tramp for a murder he committed. Xavier framed a young cadet by replacing the blanks in his gun with live ammunition. And Kelly framed her gangster boyfriend for the theft of money from his boss, resulting in his death.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The ten visitors to the island are comprised equally of five men and five women.
- Gender Flip: Two of the male characters in the novel become women here. This includes Justice Wargrave becoming Eve Lombardi and Dr. Armstrong becoming Victoria Deshotel.
- How We Got Here: The first episode begins with Detectives Le Goff and Batista arriving on Devil's Island, and finding a recording made by Nina on her cellphone. We then go back a few days to when Nina first met the detectives on the mainland, shortly before the ten traveled to the island. The narrative catches up with the opening scene in the finale.
- In Love with the Mark: Kelly's backstory. She was hired by a gangster to get involved with his rival, but ended up falling in love for real. This didn't stop her from betraying her lover at her employer's orders, and causing his death.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Xavier suspects his wife of cheating on him after he learns that she's become pregnant, just after he was told by a doctor that he's sterile. His suspicions are proven correct when he spies on her and discovers she's been having an affair with his friend and fellow officer.
- Mythology Gag: The name Eve Lombardi is very likely a reference to Philip Lombard from the original novel.
- Setting Update: The series is set in the present-day French Carribbean, as opposed to the 1930's Britain of the original novel.
- Supervillain Lair: The murderer has one hidden on Devil's Island in the basement of the hotel. It includes monitors through which he/she can view security camera footage from across the island, and serves as storage for the weapons and items used to psychologically torture and kill the victims.
- Would Hurt a Child: Nina Goldberg, just like her novel counterpart Vera Claythorne. She causes the death of Nathan, a child she's babysitting, by drowning simply because she's having an affair with his father, who won't leave his family as long as Nathan is alive.
