12. The Veiled Lady

Air date: 14/01/1990
Published: Sixteenth story in "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974)

After the two-hour feature length episode of the previous week we returned to the one-hour adaptations of story stories, with a highly entertaining episode that has a wonderful twist to it.

At only 18 pages the original story is very short indeed. It opens with Hastings and Poirot discussing possible cases; the latter feeling somewhat frustrated. Hastings mentions a jewel theft in London and the killing of an Englishman in Holland, neither of which inspire. Astute readers of Agatha Christie will know, however, not to ignore such seemingly insignificant asides: they have a habit of coming back and biting you!

A Lady Millicent Castle Vaughan (the veiled lady of the title) turns up, seeking Poirot's help. Her engagement to a prominent Duke is threatened, it seems, by blackmail. An indiscreet letter, written in her teens, has apparently fallen into the unscrupulous hands of a Mr Lavington, who is demanding £20,000 to suppress it.

When Lavington pays a visit and rejects Poirot's attempts to resolve the matter amicably, our Belgian friend takes the law into his own hands, breaking into Lavington's home while he is in Paris. The letter had been hidden in a Chinese puzzle box, which Poirot and Hastings manage to retrieve. However, when they later present the letter to a relieved Lady Millicent she asks for the box as a souvenir of the incident. Poirot duly unmasks her as part of the jewel theft gang (the jewels are in another secret compartment in the puzzle box). The real Lavington had double-crossed the gang, who had later caught up with him in Holland and killed him. The blackmail story was a rouse to get Poirot to retrieve the jewels.

It is a lively story and in the TV adaptation it is hammed up for all its worth. In the original the night-time break-in at Laverton's home is aided by Poirot having visited earlier in the day, under the pretext of being a fitter of burglar alarms - but Poirot simply recounts this to Hastings in a couple of sentences. In the adaptation, however, the events of earlier in the day are played out superbly, and in full, with Poirot in suitable workman's clothes, arriving on a bike, and persuading the housekeeper he is a Swiss locksmith! Again, in the original, when the puzzle box is retrieved Hastings and Poirot simply return home. In the adaptation they are caught by a policeman (although Hastings does a runner) and Poirot spends a night in police cells! Our friend Japp enjoys every moment having him released the following morning. In the original the finale takes place at Poirot's flat, with Japp hiding in the bedroom to make an arrest at the appropriate moment. In the adaptation it takes place in the British Museum with a prolonged, comical attempt by the two culprits to hide! In the original it is made explicit that the compromising letter is bogus; in the adaptation this explanation gets a bit lost in the fun of the finale.

I have to add that this episode provides the defining 'Hastings moment', as far as I and my children are concerned. When Lady Millicent recounts her predicament at the hands of the dastardly Lavington, Hastings - dashing as ever - ejaculates: "The dirty swine!" And, yes, that line is in the original! For television the scriptwriters loved it enough to have Hastings repeat it a little later when the slimy Lavington pays them a visit!