42. Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Air date: 01/01/1995
Published: 1938

After a year's break (the first since its inception) Agatha Christie's Poirot returned with what has become one of my favourite episodes - Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

Indeed, since 2010 (thanks, initially, to ITV3, and, latterly, to the DVD collection I have amassed) it has become a family tradition to watch the festive murder of the aged Simeon Lee a few days before Christmas.

The original opens with Stephen Farr - son of an old mining colleague of Lee's - on a train from London to the Lee country home. On board he meets Pilar Estrevados, daughter of Lee's late daughter Jennifer, heading in the same direction.

Agatha Christie created chapter divisions corresponding to calendar dates, from December 22nd to 28th. The TV adaptation follows this (with a calendar appearing periodically on screen), although, for some reason, the dates are amended to 21st - 25th.

The opening chapter introduces the family members: stay-at-home Alfred Lee and wife Lydia; ambitious, penny-pinching George Lee (MP) and his young, glamourous wife Magdalene; and artistic runaway David Lee and his wife Hilda. We meet black-sheep of the family Harry Lee on 23rd.

Most of the action happens in the long chapter for Christmas Eve. Simeon Lee, who has made his money in mining, gathers his family, while pretending to phone his solicitor about changing his will. He accuses all of them of being "namby pamby weaklings". News that Pilar and Harry will be living in permanently also ruffles a few feathers. During dinner  the family hear an awful commotion from Lee's room (he never comes downstairs). Breaking into his locked room, they find him on the floor, with his throat cut. Some uncut diamonds have disappeared from his safe. Supt Sugden, who had visited earlier to collect money for a police orphanage, is quickly on the scene to begin the investigation. We then cut to Poirot (who doesn't appear until page 100) dining with his friend Colonel Johnson, the county Chief Constable. Both are called in on the crime. The rest of the chapter sees the three men interviewing all the main suspects.

The diamonds are eventually discovered in one of Lydia Lee's miniature garden displays. Stephen Farr is not who he says he is; neither is Pilar, while George Lee and his wife both claim to have been on the phone at the (apparent) time of the murder.

Poirot eventually deduces that Supt Sugden had committed the murder earlier in the evening (when visiting to collect funds). He had piled up furniture in Lee's room and attached a cord around it, before dropping it out of the window. Later he had returned and pulled the cord to cause the furniture to collapse, creating the impression that Lee was murdered later in the evening than in fact he was. Motive? Sugden was one of those children Lee had boasted of having sired "on the wrong side of the blanket". On no less than four occasions in the early part of the book we are told that Lees don't forget things, and will often wait years to get revenge on someone. That is the biggest clue.

The TV adaptation is very faithful to the story - even including several speeches almost verbatim from the book. Such changes as are made, are I believe, an improvement on the original (for reasons I will explain).

It opens with an extended flashback to 1896. A young Simeon Lee kills his prospecting partner over some uncut diamonds. Injured, he is rescued by a South African woman with whom he stays for a while. However, he eventually runs out on her. A distinct birthmark on her face identifies her as the mysterious, elderly woman who turns up in the local village, staying at the pub, during the time of the murder. This becomes a major clue for the viewer. Although Lee had mined in South Africa, the original does not suggest Sugden's mother was South African.

We then see Poirot and Chief Insp Japp bidding each other a happy Christmas, before Poirot discovers the central heating in his flat has broken down. At that moment Simeon Lee phones him, inviting him to come and stay for Christmas. Lee is worried that his life is in danger. Thus, Poirot is present when the murder takes place. He subsequently 'rescues' Japp from his Welsh in-laws (Japp thus replaces Colonel Johnson). The events are more truncated for TV, the murder taking place on the evening of the 22nd.

Not for the first time in Agatha Christie's Poirot some characters are cut from the original; namely Stephen Farr and David (and Hilda) Lee. This, I think, greatly improves the flow. Farr doesn't really add much to the original, while David reads as something of a cross between the loyal Alfred and the renegade Harry. It is now Harry who meets Pilar on the train, and when it is discovered that she is not really Pilar (but Pilar's friend) it is Harry (no longer her uncle!) who forms the romantic attachment with her at the end (rather than Farr).

The producers went to town on the 'Christmas feel' for this story. Snow is thick on the ground. No snow is mentioned in the original; indeed, when Sudgen leaves after his initial visit, the original has him telling butler Tresillian: "I think we shall have a frost tonight. Good thing: the weather's been very unseasonable lately." For TV that becomes: "We'll been having more snow tonight, I shouldn't wonder." Carol singing appears and there is also a very 'Christmassy' twist on the Poirot theme score that recurs during quieter linking scenes.

The adaptation ends on the customary light-hearted note. Poirot and Japp exchange gifts. Japp is delighted with his cigars; Poirot, predictably, less enamoured with the gloves knitted for him by Mrs Japp! Wonderful!