Partners in Crime (UK TV series) commissioned by Ben Stephenson and Charlotte Moore for the BBC to mark the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth. The adaptation was produced by Endor Productions in partnership with Agatha Christie Productions. David Walliams and Hilary Strong (Agatha Christie Group) approached Hilary Bevan Jones and Tom Nash (development producer) of Endor Productions with the idea of re-inventing the Agatha Christie characters Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Walliams liked the idea of a married amateur detective duo bickering over a dead body. Agatha Christie wrote stories featuring the Beresfords between 1922 and 1973, depicting Tommy and Tuppence from before they were married
Dead Boy Detectives meet for the first time. The story and characters are clearly a macabre spin on two genres of British children's fiction - boarding school literature and teenage detective stories. Gaiman revived the characters in the "Children's Crusade" Vertigo's first and only crossover event which ran through all that year's Vertigo annuals that were published between December 1993 and January 1994. Gaiman wrote the two "Children's Crusade" bookend annuals which prominently featured both characters and first gave them the official title the "Dead Boy Detectives". The characters also appeared in a "The Books of Magic" short story in "Winter's Edge #3",