10. The Dream

Air date: 19/03/1989
Published: Fifth story in "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" (1960)

The Dream is one of those episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot that, for whatever reason, I seem to have watched several times over the years - or, at least, the plot and details have stayed with me.

That possibly threatens to skew one's perspective, even though for "Little Grey Cells" I am continuing to read the original before watching the adaptation.

The story concerns a rich businessman, Benedict Farley, who consults Poirot over a recurring dream he has been having of shooting himself. Poirot is unable to help but when, a few days later, Farley is found shot (and evidence of their meeting comes to light) he is called in to assist the investigation.

It turns out that Poirot did not meet Farley. Rather, it was his private secretary, Hugo Cornworthy, in disguise. Cornworthy, who had meticulously planned the whole thing (in cahoots with Farley's wife), had later shot Farley through an adjacent window.

I was struck by the faithfulness of the TV adaptation's script to the original, down to several chunks of dialogue being taken verbatim.

That's not to say there aren't embellishments, of course: in fact, there are plenty, but they don't grate. The full 'team' of Hastings, Miss Lemon and Japp are in attendance, although none of them appear in the original. Farley's business (not really stated in the original) is now seen to be, of all things, the manufacturing of pies. In fact, the episode opens with a Pathe news piece on an expansion of his factory. For some reason the murder happens at 12:28, not 3:28, and Farley was due to meet some union reps, not journalists.

There is considerable humour in this episode. At the beginning Miss Lemon complains that she needs a new typewriter - but at the end Poirot presents her with a new clock. When unable to solve the case Poirot complains that the failure of his 'little grey cells' are the fruits of fast living in younger days - to which Hastings is suitably flabbergasted! Poirot - ever the connoiseur - is dismissive of Farley's pies. All of this shows the degree to which the writers had developed the main characters by the end of this first series.

Interestingly, in the original Poirot consults his new acquisition: a wrist-watch! As the TV producers set everything in the 1930s this would be anathema to the little Belgian. We also have a 'summing up' scene involving all the characters; something that would become a regular feature in the later, two-hour episodes.

In the adaptation we once again have a dramatic 'television' ending that is absent from the original. Cornworthy does a runner (even evading the derring-do of Hastings), only to be taken down, rugby-tackle style, by Herbert, the impoverished love-interest of Farley's daughter Joanna.

And so on this spirited and entertaining note the first series of Agatha Christie's Poirot came to an end.