43. Hickory Dickory Dock

Air date: 12/02/1995
Published: 1955

Hickory Dickory Dock had the distinction of being the first post-Second World War novel to be adapted for Agatha Christie's Poirot. Although not a huge factor for this particular story, it serves to remind us again of that intractable issue of chronology that would become more prevalent as later Poirot novels were filmed.

The story is set in a student hostel and concerns two issues: smuggling and murder.

The book opens with Poirot observing three mistakes in a letter typed by the normally super-efficient Miss Lemon. Hickory Dickory Dock was actually the first novel to feature the character; the others being Dead Man's Folly (1956), Third Girl (1966) and Elephants Can Remember (1972).

The reason, apparently, is her current concern for her widowed sister, Mrs Hubbard, who runs a student hostel - where random items have recently been stolen.

Poirot becomes involved, under the pretext of giving a lecture on crime at the hostel, and one student, Celia Austin, eventually confesses to (most of) the crimes. Kleptomania seems the cause - although she was possibly put up to it as a way of attracting the attentions of psychology student Colin McNabb. However, shortly after this Celia is found dead from a lethal dose of morphine. Two more people, hostel owner Mrs Nicoletis, and another student, Patricia Lane, are also murdered, presumably for what they knew.

Strangely, although he appears in the book's opening sentence, Poirot slips into the background for much of the investigation, carried out by one Inspector Sharpe. This, again, would be an observable trend in later Poirot novels.

Eventually we discover that the smuggling is being run by one of the hostel residents, Valerie Hobhouse. The murders, however, are the work of her accomplice, student Nigel Chapman. Early on we are told he was estranged from his father. However, it is only in the closing chapters that Poirot announces that, years earlier, Chapman's father had covered up the fact that Chapman had killed his own mother. At the time he had forced his son to write a confession, which he promised to keep secret - as long as his son was never involved in any sort of criminal activity again.

Although generally faithful to the main plot the adaptation is, I feel, a much more balanced tale, with far more intrigue. We are introduced to Chapman's father, Sir Arthur Stanley, much earlier (although we don't initially know the link with Chapman himself). Japp (who once again replaces the local investigating officer) knows Sir Stanley from the past and is wary of him (he later tells Poirot he believes Sir Stanley murdered his wife ten years earlier). Mrs Nicoletis has become the ringleader of the smuggling (which utilises student rucksacks to bring diamonds into the UK from the continent). A mysterious man is seen (on at least three occasions) observing the hostel: he is later revealed to be a Customs and Excise officer, and one of the students, American Sally Finch, is now working undercover for him. Celia's observing of someone hiding a rucksack in a back alley boiler room is a more prominent clue as to the reason for her murder. By the same token, when politics student Pat visits the ailing Sir Stanley in hospital she discovers photos in a family album - making the link with Chapman.

Poirot has a more theatrical summing up, and when a mouse startles Miss Lemon, Chapman does a runner, before being apprehended in the local underground station.

A historical background to the episode is the Jarrow Marches, which took place in October 1936, locating the adaptation in the customary 1930s era.

One regular feature of the adaptations was the slimming down of the cast. In the original Hickory Dickory Dock novel the hostel seems a larger establishment (two buildings combined into one) and there are significantly more students. Interestingly, those who are omitted for the adaptation are the foreign students. Christie's cast originally featured Indian, Dutch, French, Egyptian and West Indian students, alongside the British. Perhaps the TV producers felt this was far less likely to have been the case in the mid 1930s than in the post-war setting of the novel.

The customary humour comes from Japp staying at Poirot's flat (while Mrs Japp is on holiday). He doesn't take to his host's fancy food - or to the central heating! In the finale, Japp returns the compliment. Predictably, Poirot turns his nose up at Japp's offering of mash, mushy peas and faggots!