7. Problem at Sea

Air date: 19/02/1989
Published: Seventeenth story in "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974).

It's a hard life being a world-famous detective: One week on the beach at Rhodes, the next week cruising in the Med.

To be fair, Triangle at Rhodes and Problem at Sea weren't originally written to be read side-by-side in sequence, but this is how they appeared to viewers of that first TV series of Agatha Christie's Poirot.

That meant, for the second week running, no Japp, no Miss Lemon, and no scenes in Poirot's very art deco flat. No Hastings either? Well, that would be too much, wouldn't it? So, although he doesn't appear in the original story, he is on board with Poirot for this one, busily arranging a clay pigeon shooting competition, no less.

The story concerns a Mrs Adeline Clapperton, who is found dead - stabbed - in her cabin. Her long-suffering husband, Colonel John Clapperton, was ashore at the time with two young girls who have rather taken pity on him and enjoy 'rescuing' him from his nagging wife.

The upshot is that the Colonel did it, using his skills as a ventriloquist to apparently speak to his wife through the locked cabin door - when in fact she was already dead.

Once again it has to be said that the TV production is remarkably faithful to the original, even down to Poirot staging a talking doll scene in the finale to unmask the killer (although in the original he promptly collapses and dies of a heart attack, whereas on television he is arrested by the ship's crew).

Such embellishments as were added were, on this occasion, more to do with throwing red herrings at the viewers than padding out the plot. So, General Forbes, a character on board who knew the Clappertons of old, is now presented as having been in love with the victim for years. Local hawkers are spotted on board the ship. A one-eyed steward is seen to approach Mrs Clapperton's cabin (and is later discovered to have stolen some jewellery from the cabin).

The ending is also very faithful to the original, with Poirot speaking on deck to a Miss Ellie Henderson, a woman who obviously admired the Colonel from a distance. It is rather poignant ... and something of a respite from the 'dramatic chase' type endings of late.