Tommy

Tommy Beresford, an unimaginative but charming young man, encounters a childhood friend, Tuppence Cowley, after he is released from service in World War One.  Jobless, they decide to start 'Young Adventurers Ltd' - "Willing to do anything. Go anywhere...No unreasonable offer refused." Christie describes Tommy’s face as “pleasantly ugly – nondescript, yet unmistakably the face of a gentleman”.  He is in his early twenties at the beginning of The Secret Adversary, where his partnership with Tuppence begins.  They later marry and appear together in five books, one of which is the short story collection Partners in Crime.  The Beresfords age gracefully in the course of their last three books: N or M?,  By the Pricking of My Thumbs and Postern of Fate.  In the final novel they are seen as retired grandparents who still love a good mystery. To the end, Tommy remains the slower thinker whose natural caution serves as the perfect foil to Tuppence's impetuous nature.

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 ‘Adventure inc’.

In 1984, The Partners in Crime television series aired on LWT starring James Warwick and Francesca Annis as Tommy and Tuppence.  It featured ten of the fifteen short stories from the book of the same name. The two actors made a convincing couple and the lavish sets and costumes from the 1920s made this a popular series. They appeared again in 1985 with the LWT full length television film of The Secret Adversary.

Sometimes appears with:

• Tuppence