With his new TV show “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” British actor Hugh Laurie, best known for playing an eccentric doctor in the TV series “House,” takes what he says is his favourite Agatha Christie novel to the screen.

Laurie, who also acts in a supporting role, wrote, produced, and directed the three-part mini-series.

“I would say the novel has been a passion of mine for a long time,” Laurie, 62, told Reuters on the eve of the show’s debut.

“The more I thought about it, the more I enjoyed the idea of trying to get what I thought was a sort of comic adventure spirit onto the screen.”

“Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” by Agatha Christie was originally published in the United Kingdom in 1934.

The novel and TV miniseries revolve around the likeable Bobby Jones (Will Poulter), who comes across a dying man near the Welsh seashore cliffs. Before he dies, the stranger is only able to utter the title’s perplexing query. Bobby sets out to find out what happened to the man and provide an answer to his final question with the help of his boyhood friend, Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent (Lucy Boynton).

laurie stated:  “There’s a snappy, almost American kind of style to it that I think she (Christie) was going for,” Laurie said of his source material.

“I felt it was a very precious thing to try and preserve and maybe in some places, go and explore a little further. But I’m trying to be as faithful to the spirit of the thing as I could.”

“Why Didn’t They Ask Evans”, which also stars Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent and Paul Whitehouse, starts streaming on BritBox on Tuesday.