4. Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds

Air date: 29/01/1989
Published: Fourth story in "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" (1960).

Even in these days of freeview TV re-runs and of DVD boxed-sets there are still Poirot episodes that I don't instantly recall.

And so it was that when I sat down with a coffee and a notebook for the latest instalment of 'Little Grey Cells' the title Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds did not initially mean much to me.

In many ways it is a simple, but interesting plot, and one which emphasises Poirot's obsession with 'order and method'.

Dining with his friend Henry Bonnington, Poirot is fascinated when the habits of an eccentric restaurant regular are noted to have suddenly changed. That fascination deepens later when he hears that the man in question, one Henry Gascoigne, has died after apparently falling down the stairs at home.

Although a relatively poor artist, Gascoigne had a twin brother Anthony (with whom he had fallen out) who, through marriage, was well off. Anthony, now a widower, had died a few hours before Henry. The upshot is that the change of habit noted in the restaurant was down to a nephew, George Lorrimer, impersonating him. George had, of course, pushed his uncle down the stairs to inherit the family fortune.

The TV production embellishes the original tale somewhat. Bonnington is now Poirot's dentist; Hastings (not in the original) is following the Ashes cricket on the radio; Japp (not in the original) introduces Poirot to the whole new world of forensics (a kind of art deco CSI!) and Lorrimer, a doctor in the original, is now, for some reason, a theatre impresario. There is also an artist's model and agent thrown in (presumably as additional red herrings).

Embellishments are understandable in the process of bringing a short story to television but there seemed to be almost too many in one go here.

Ironically, one element of the original and 'simple' story was lost as a result. When challenging Lorrimer Poirot had cleverly implied that Henry Gascoigne had a wife - which would mean Lorrimer had committed murder for nothing!