36. The Yellow Iris

Air date: 31/01/1993
Published: Third story in "The Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories" (1991)

Of all the episodes filmed for Agatha Christie's Poirot, there is a sense in which The Yellow Iris stands out as something of a historical oddity.

It is the only short story never to have featured in any of the 'main collections' of Poirot short stories - failing even to make the "Poirot's Early Cases" collection (published in 1974).

The Yellow Iris originally appeared (as did many of Agatha Christie's short stories) in Strand magazine in 1937. It was published in the US in an eclectic collection of stories in 1939, but didn't appear on the UK market until 1991 (two years after David Suchet had first appeared on TV in his iconic role - and only two years before this adaptation!) in "The Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories".

One of the reasons, perhaps, for being ignored is that Christie took the original story, adapted and embellished it and transformed it into one of her best known 'non-Poirot' murder mysteries, Sparkling Cyanide, which was published in 1945, and featured, as the crime-solver, Poirot's secret service friend, Colonel Race.

The original version of The Yellow Iris is one of those Poirot short stories that is, indeed, short and needed a degree of embellishment to turn it into one of the one hour TV episodes.

The story concerns a past murder of Iris Russell at a dinner party. At the time suicide was suspected, but, two years later, her businessman husband Barton gathers the same guests at another meal, claiming he believes Iris was murdered.

The adaptation featured a rare TV example of a flashback (usually incidents told in flashback in the originals appear as part of the story on TV). The opening of a new restaurant in London reminds Poirot of a case he was unable to solve two years earlier. He shares with Hastings and Miss Lemon the case: On his way to visit Hastings (who was living in Argentina at the time) Poirot is on hand when Iris dies. However, he is mysteriously arrested during a coup d'etat, and deported. This whole South American background is absent from the original story.

Poirot is on hand once again when the guests re-assemble, and Iris's sister Pauline appears to die in the same manner (cyanide in a glass of champagne). Poirot has, however, forewarned her, having worked out that the culprit was Barton Russell himself, keen to acquire the sisters' family fortune, in the wake of his own failing business deals.

With restaurants playing a prominent part in the story it is no surprise to find that food provides the light-hearted elements, both at the beginning and end of the episode. It opens with Poirot eating ludicrously neat, cut up squares of toast and jam and being chided by Hastings for not having a good English breakfast. Poirot dismisses English cuisine. In the finale, with Poirot having missed an evening meal, Hastings takes him to a fish 'n chip takeaway - where he enthusiastically tucks in!