5. Third Floor Flat

Air date: 05/02/1989
Published: Twelfth story in "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974)

This episode is a wonderful example of the embellishments that were often necessary to adapt the shorter of Poirot short stories to fit the one-hour TV programme format.

Continuing the trend of the first series so far, the adaptation is once again very faithful to the original. The story concerns the murder of a woman living in Poirot's block of flats. Her body is discovered by two young men who are endeavouring to 'break in' to the flat of a friend who has lost her key. Using the service/coal lift they mistakenly alight on the floor below their intended destination.

There are some minor changes in the details, but basically, after realising they are in the wrong flat, they find the body, and go up to their friend's flat (via the service lift) and open the door from the inside, as originally intended. At this point Poirot, who has been eavesdropping, gets involved. A monogrammed handkerchief and a short note appear to point to a 'John Fraser'. The upshot, however, is that the murderer was one of the two men. The woman he had shot earlier in the evening was his estranged wife. He had killed her because he was in love with Patricia, the woman who lived in the flat below.

Now for the embellishments. In the original Poirot claims he has a cold at the point of duping the culprit to sniff some ethyl chloride. It is far from clear whether or not this is genuine. In the adaptation much more is made of his cold. We first see him in his flat inhaling balsam under the direction of Miss Lemon (who, again, is not in the original). Hastings (who, on this occasion, is not in the original, either) turns up and takes Poirot out to the theatre, to watch a murder mystery (in which Poirot comically fails to spot the murderer!). As the two young men, Donovan and Jimmy, and their two friends, Patricia and Mildred, go to the same theatre production, all of this occupies a significant chunk of the episode.

It was becoming clear that the producers of the TV series were also opting for more exciting conclusions (understandable, really, for a television audience). In the original, Poirot's explanations to Jimmy bring the story to a close (it is assumed Donovan, who has gone home, will be arrested). In the TV production we have a lengthy dramatic conclusion as Donovan attempts to flee the block of flats - and ends up crashing Hastings' sports car! Back in the flat he confesses, and we see what happened in flashback. Interestingly, we see him goaded and humiliated by his wife, who steadfastly refuses his request for a divorce. She comes across, to me, as decidedly unpleasant. Were we meant to have some sympathy for Donovan?

In the original it is an Inspector Rice who leads the police enquiries. For the television it is, of course, our old friend Japp again. Rice actually shows considerable deference to Poirot. Japp, on the other hand, is his usual eyebrow-raising self, bemused at the way Poirot always complicates 'open-and-shut' cases!