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!
Saturday, 31 October 2015
Monday, 12 October 2015
35. The Underdog
Air date: 24/01/1993
Published: Third story in "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" (1960)
The Underdog is a tale that struck me - both in the original and in the adaptation - as being curious and complex in its build-up - but then weak in its conclusion.
In the original Poirot is sought by Lily Margrave, on behalf of Lady Ashwell, following the murder of the latter's husband, Sir Reuben. The police have arrested his nephew Charles Leverson, who had been overheard arguing with his uncle late on the evening of the murder.
Lady Ashwell is convinced her late husband's secretary, Owen Trefusis, is the culprit. Sir Reuben's estate will be divided between Lady Ashwell and young Charles. The plot thickens when it is later revealed that Lady Ashwell had argued with her husband on the evening of his murder, and that Sir Reuben's brother Victor had also been speaking to his brother in his study shortly before the murder would have taken place.
Lily Margrave, companion to Lady Ashwell, also comes under suspicion, having been asking Sir Reuben questions about his mining enterprises in Africa. Poirot later uncovers that she is really Lily Naylor and that she was investigating Ashwell's mining activities on behalf of her brother Humphrey, who had been cheated out of a gold mine.
As it turns out, the murderer was Trefusis. He had gone to collect something from the bedroom that adjoined Sir Reuben's study when the argument between Ashwell and his wife began. Trefusis had stayed hidden. When later spotted trying to leave he had killed Ashwell on impulse - having been bullied and brow beaten for years.
Quite a few changes are made for the adaptation. Sir Reuben is now into chemical manufacture and Trefusis is his head scientist, working on a new synthetic rubber. Naylor is a scientist at Imperial College, whose work has been highjacked. Sir Reuben's estate is to be divided between his wife and Victor (not nephew Charles). The violent temper that made Victor an obvious suspect in the original is absent, as is his engagement to Lily.
Hastings and Miss Lemon are present (neither appear in the original). Japp is absent from both.
In the original Poirot enlists the help of a Harley Street specialist to hypnotize Lady Ashwell, in the hope of eliciting any memories from her of what happened earlier on the evening of the murder. In the adaptation Miss Lemon somehow has the knowledge and know-how to perform this task. George, Poirot's valet, appears in the original, having several tasks to perform. He would not appear in any of the television adaptations for a number of years.
Published: Third story in "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" (1960)
The Underdog is a tale that struck me - both in the original and in the adaptation - as being curious and complex in its build-up - but then weak in its conclusion.
In the original Poirot is sought by Lily Margrave, on behalf of Lady Ashwell, following the murder of the latter's husband, Sir Reuben. The police have arrested his nephew Charles Leverson, who had been overheard arguing with his uncle late on the evening of the murder.
Lady Ashwell is convinced her late husband's secretary, Owen Trefusis, is the culprit. Sir Reuben's estate will be divided between Lady Ashwell and young Charles. The plot thickens when it is later revealed that Lady Ashwell had argued with her husband on the evening of his murder, and that Sir Reuben's brother Victor had also been speaking to his brother in his study shortly before the murder would have taken place.
Lily Margrave, companion to Lady Ashwell, also comes under suspicion, having been asking Sir Reuben questions about his mining enterprises in Africa. Poirot later uncovers that she is really Lily Naylor and that she was investigating Ashwell's mining activities on behalf of her brother Humphrey, who had been cheated out of a gold mine.
As it turns out, the murderer was Trefusis. He had gone to collect something from the bedroom that adjoined Sir Reuben's study when the argument between Ashwell and his wife began. Trefusis had stayed hidden. When later spotted trying to leave he had killed Ashwell on impulse - having been bullied and brow beaten for years.
Quite a few changes are made for the adaptation. Sir Reuben is now into chemical manufacture and Trefusis is his head scientist, working on a new synthetic rubber. Naylor is a scientist at Imperial College, whose work has been highjacked. Sir Reuben's estate is to be divided between his wife and Victor (not nephew Charles). The violent temper that made Victor an obvious suspect in the original is absent, as is his engagement to Lily.
Hastings and Miss Lemon are present (neither appear in the original). Japp is absent from both.
In the original Poirot enlists the help of a Harley Street specialist to hypnotize Lady Ashwell, in the hope of eliciting any memories from her of what happened earlier on the evening of the murder. In the adaptation Miss Lemon somehow has the knowledge and know-how to perform this task. George, Poirot's valet, appears in the original, having several tasks to perform. He would not appear in any of the television adaptations for a number of years.
Sunday, 27 September 2015
34. The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
Air date: 17/01/1993
Published: Sixth story in "Poirot Investigates" (1924)
The fifth series of Agatha Christie's Poirot returned to the format of one-hour adaptations of short stories.
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb is one of several Poirot stories that reflect the author's personal interest in archaeology.
In the original Hastings is narrating. He records how, following the opening of the tomb of King Men-her-Ra in the Egyptian desert, expedition leader Sir John Willard died of a heart attack. Two weeks later Mr Bleibner, from New York, died of blood poisoning. A few days later his nephew Rupert had shot himself in New York. Reference is made early on to superstitions surrounding the tomb. Other members of the party include Dr Tosswill from the British Museum, Mr Schneider from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Dr Ames, a medical doctor, also from the states, and a secretary Harper.
At that point Lady Willard, widow of Sir John, calls in Poirot, concerned for her son, who has taken over at the dig. Poirot cables New York to find some background on Rupert Bleibner before he and Hastings head for the desert. On arrival there is lovely description of Poirot waging an unceasing war on dust with a small clothes-brush. However, before their arrival Schneider has also died - of tetanus.
Poirot plays along with the whole superstition-curse idea, before faking his own poisoning to expose the murderer, Dr Ames. Years earlier Rupert Bleibner, "in a fit of drunken merriment" had written a will leaving everything to the doctor. Taking advantage of Sir John's natural death, he had infected Bleibner and had convinced young Bleibner (who stood to inherit his uncle's fortune) that a minor skin ailment was leprosy. Schneider had been killed just to perpetuate the curse myth.
The adaptation is very faithful to many of the details, although Lady Willard calls Poirot in much earlier (after the death of her husband). The other deaths all happen as the plot then unfolds. Hastings, who is returning to the UK from a trip to the US, is in New York when Rupert Bleibner takes his own life. In the original Ames - on being exposed - kills himself. For TV he attempts to escape before being caught by Sir John's faithful servant Hassan.
I have commented previously on the stylistic device of picking up a plot characteristic and making it a light-hearted background issue. Here, with all the fears of superstition hanging around, we see Miss Lemon back at the office foolishly dabbling in the occult.
Published: Sixth story in "Poirot Investigates" (1924)
The fifth series of Agatha Christie's Poirot returned to the format of one-hour adaptations of short stories.
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb is one of several Poirot stories that reflect the author's personal interest in archaeology.
In the original Hastings is narrating. He records how, following the opening of the tomb of King Men-her-Ra in the Egyptian desert, expedition leader Sir John Willard died of a heart attack. Two weeks later Mr Bleibner, from New York, died of blood poisoning. A few days later his nephew Rupert had shot himself in New York. Reference is made early on to superstitions surrounding the tomb. Other members of the party include Dr Tosswill from the British Museum, Mr Schneider from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Dr Ames, a medical doctor, also from the states, and a secretary Harper.
At that point Lady Willard, widow of Sir John, calls in Poirot, concerned for her son, who has taken over at the dig. Poirot cables New York to find some background on Rupert Bleibner before he and Hastings head for the desert. On arrival there is lovely description of Poirot waging an unceasing war on dust with a small clothes-brush. However, before their arrival Schneider has also died - of tetanus.
Poirot plays along with the whole superstition-curse idea, before faking his own poisoning to expose the murderer, Dr Ames. Years earlier Rupert Bleibner, "in a fit of drunken merriment" had written a will leaving everything to the doctor. Taking advantage of Sir John's natural death, he had infected Bleibner and had convinced young Bleibner (who stood to inherit his uncle's fortune) that a minor skin ailment was leprosy. Schneider had been killed just to perpetuate the curse myth.
The adaptation is very faithful to many of the details, although Lady Willard calls Poirot in much earlier (after the death of her husband). The other deaths all happen as the plot then unfolds. Hastings, who is returning to the UK from a trip to the US, is in New York when Rupert Bleibner takes his own life. In the original Ames - on being exposed - kills himself. For TV he attempts to escape before being caught by Sir John's faithful servant Hassan.
I have commented previously on the stylistic device of picking up a plot characteristic and making it a light-hearted background issue. Here, with all the fears of superstition hanging around, we see Miss Lemon back at the office foolishly dabbling in the occult.
Interlude: "Poirot and Me"
In chapter nine of his book "Poirot and Me" Suchet again remarks on the precarious nature of being actor - particularly with a family to support.
With ITV again being rather slow to decide on the commissioning of another series of Agatha Christie's Poirot Suchet accepted the lead role in a BBC adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. The role of the anarchist Alfred Verloc certainly being very different to Hercule Poirot!
When ITV did finally decide to go ahead with another series it was decided to make three feature-length adaptations of novels. All three, Suchet suggests, were strong stories, although he was slightly disappointed that Hastings and Miss Lemon only appeared in one episode.
Suchet comments on the hugely significant part producer Brian Eastman played over the years in bringing Poirot to the screen. He also refers to the pleasure one Clive Exton line in One, Two Buckle My Shoe gave him, when Poirot declares: "I am methodical, orderly and logical... and I do not like to distort facts to support a theory."
With ITV again being rather slow to decide on the commissioning of another series of Agatha Christie's Poirot Suchet accepted the lead role in a BBC adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. The role of the anarchist Alfred Verloc certainly being very different to Hercule Poirot!
When ITV did finally decide to go ahead with another series it was decided to make three feature-length adaptations of novels. All three, Suchet suggests, were strong stories, although he was slightly disappointed that Hastings and Miss Lemon only appeared in one episode.
Suchet comments on the hugely significant part producer Brian Eastman played over the years in bringing Poirot to the screen. He also refers to the pleasure one Clive Exton line in One, Two Buckle My Shoe gave him, when Poirot declares: "I am methodical, orderly and logical... and I do not like to distort facts to support a theory."
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
33. One, Two Buckle My Shoe
Air date: 19/01/1992
Published: 1940
One, Two Buckle My Shoe, the last episode in the short fourth series, has never been one of my favourite Poirots - either in written form or in adaptation. I'm not exactly sure why: it might be the plot-line, or the characters - or a combination of both.
It concerns, principally, the death of a dentist. Two other deaths (which are obviously connected) follow.
The original opens by introducing several characters (including Poirot) who are preparing to go and see their dentist, Mr Morley. Morley is later found dead in his surgery, a pistol in his hand. Japp, interestingly (rather than Poirot), questions the obvious conclusion: suicide. However, when one of the dentist's patients, a Mr Amberiotis, dies later that day of an adrenaline and novocaine overdose Japp switches to the conclusion that Morley - realising he had inadvertently given a patient a lethal overdose, had commited suicide out of remorse. The inquest buys this.
Another patient, the mousy actress-turned missionary Miss Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, then goes missing. A woman's body is found in a trunk in a flat, with the face beaten to the point of being unrecognisable. Dental records later appear to suggest that it is not the missing Miss Sainsbury-Seale, but a Mrs Chapman, whose flat she had been visiting.
Various other characters (mostly patients), drift in and out of the story, including the prominent banker and staunch defender of all things decent and traditional, Mr Alistair Blunt.
Poirot eventually deduces that Blunt is the culprit. While in India he had met and married Gerda, an actress friend of Miss Sainsbury-Seale. However, some years later he has bigamously married into a wealthy family (apparently with his first wife's approval). This rich woman had subsequently died of an illness.
When Miss Sainsbury-Seale turned up in the UK and wanted to catch up with Blunt's (first) wife, it obviously threatened his career. She had blabbed in her hotel about knowing Blunt and his wife to Mr Amberiotis, who, it seems, instantly realised she was talking about a different wife and had proceeded to try and blackmail Blunt. Blunt had killed Morley in order to kill Amberiotis (dressed as a dentist). And had also killed Sainsbury-Seale - who was, in fact, the body in the trunk (Blunt had swapped dental records). Confused? The plot is a bit like that. Oh, and apart from her initial appearance, Miss Sainsbury-Seale wasn't Miss Sainsbury-Seale: she was Gerda dressed up to impersonate her (presumably after Sainsbury-Seale had been bumped off and deposited in the trunk).
The adaptation opens with a lengthy prelude set years earlier (1925) in India, with Sainsbury-Seale and Gerda acting. Gerda and Blunt announce their engagement. Several characters are omitted (not surprisingly, given how convoluted the plot is), including Morley's partner Reilly, Mr Barnes, a retired home office man, and Howard Raikes, who is something of a revolutionary. Interestingly one character, Frank Carter, the rather dubious fiance of Morley's secretary, takes on some of Raikes' traits for the TV adaptation.
In the original Poirot's lengthy closing explanation is given to Blunt alone (police officers appear afterwards to arrest him). In the adaptation Poirot gathers most of the leading characters before summing up and unmasking the culprit.
Published: 1940
One, Two Buckle My Shoe, the last episode in the short fourth series, has never been one of my favourite Poirots - either in written form or in adaptation. I'm not exactly sure why: it might be the plot-line, or the characters - or a combination of both.
It concerns, principally, the death of a dentist. Two other deaths (which are obviously connected) follow.
The original opens by introducing several characters (including Poirot) who are preparing to go and see their dentist, Mr Morley. Morley is later found dead in his surgery, a pistol in his hand. Japp, interestingly (rather than Poirot), questions the obvious conclusion: suicide. However, when one of the dentist's patients, a Mr Amberiotis, dies later that day of an adrenaline and novocaine overdose Japp switches to the conclusion that Morley - realising he had inadvertently given a patient a lethal overdose, had commited suicide out of remorse. The inquest buys this.
Another patient, the mousy actress-turned missionary Miss Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale, then goes missing. A woman's body is found in a trunk in a flat, with the face beaten to the point of being unrecognisable. Dental records later appear to suggest that it is not the missing Miss Sainsbury-Seale, but a Mrs Chapman, whose flat she had been visiting.
Various other characters (mostly patients), drift in and out of the story, including the prominent banker and staunch defender of all things decent and traditional, Mr Alistair Blunt.
Poirot eventually deduces that Blunt is the culprit. While in India he had met and married Gerda, an actress friend of Miss Sainsbury-Seale. However, some years later he has bigamously married into a wealthy family (apparently with his first wife's approval). This rich woman had subsequently died of an illness.
When Miss Sainsbury-Seale turned up in the UK and wanted to catch up with Blunt's (first) wife, it obviously threatened his career. She had blabbed in her hotel about knowing Blunt and his wife to Mr Amberiotis, who, it seems, instantly realised she was talking about a different wife and had proceeded to try and blackmail Blunt. Blunt had killed Morley in order to kill Amberiotis (dressed as a dentist). And had also killed Sainsbury-Seale - who was, in fact, the body in the trunk (Blunt had swapped dental records). Confused? The plot is a bit like that. Oh, and apart from her initial appearance, Miss Sainsbury-Seale wasn't Miss Sainsbury-Seale: she was Gerda dressed up to impersonate her (presumably after Sainsbury-Seale had been bumped off and deposited in the trunk).
The adaptation opens with a lengthy prelude set years earlier (1925) in India, with Sainsbury-Seale and Gerda acting. Gerda and Blunt announce their engagement. Several characters are omitted (not surprisingly, given how convoluted the plot is), including Morley's partner Reilly, Mr Barnes, a retired home office man, and Howard Raikes, who is something of a revolutionary. Interestingly one character, Frank Carter, the rather dubious fiance of Morley's secretary, takes on some of Raikes' traits for the TV adaptation.
In the original Poirot's lengthy closing explanation is given to Blunt alone (police officers appear afterwards to arrest him). In the adaptation Poirot gathers most of the leading characters before summing up and unmasking the culprit.
Monday, 7 September 2015
32. Death in the Clouds
Air date: 12/01/1992
Published: 1935
There are some 'whodunit?' plots that develop with a bewildering array of suspects, all with means and motive. A less common, alternative approach is the type of storyline where it appears nobody could have done it. The latest story to be adapted in Agatha Christie's Poirot falls in the latter category.
Death in the Clouds concerns the murder of Madame Giselle, a French moneylender, on board a plane from Paris to London. Poirot is one of the passengers. She is found dead in her seat, shortly before the plane is due to land, with a puncture mark on her neck. An initial suggestion of an allergic reaction to a wasp sting (a wasp is seen buzzing around the cabin) gives way to murder when Poirot finds a small dart on the floor. The subsequent discovery of a blowpipe (lodged where Poirot had been sitting!) leads to the assumption that this is how she was killed. But who could have stood up and used a blowpipe without the other passengers seeing?
Poirot eventually deduces that one passenger, Norman Gale, a dentist, had donned his dentist's coat in the lavatory and walked down the aisle as if he were a steward (on the basis that nobody notices a steward) and had pushed the dart into Madame Giselle's neck. Motive? Money. He had recently married Giselle's abandoned daughter, who stood to inherit a fortune. Gale had utilised both the wasp and the blowpipe to confuse the authorities.
The adaptation adheres closely to the central facts of the story, but not without significant changes of detail. Some of these changes do affect the pace and emphases in the story.
The original opens with the plane about to take off. One passenger, Jane Grey, is the focus of attention (the 'protagonist', to use a writer's term). Madame Giselle is dead by the end of the first chapter.
By contrast, the adaptation features quite a prelude to the fatal flight, and is developed around the French Tennis Championships in Paris (won by England's Fred Perry). Poirot sees another passenger, Lady Horbury, arguing with Madame Giselle at a party.
No fewer than four characters are cut for the adaptation: archaeologist Armand Dupont (his son Jean survives the cull for TV), businessman James Ryder (whose financial woes make him an obvious 'red herring' to be under the thumb of the moneylender), Doctor Bryant (whose medical background might equip him with a knowledge of the snake poison on the dart, and the means of acquiring it), and a junior steward, Davis (for TV Miss Grey - a hairdresser in the original - becomes the colleague of the senior steward, Mitchell).
Japp is prominent in the original, although the French inspector, Fournier, is given more of a role than in the adaptation, frequently expressing sympathy with Poirot's methods.
With the murder occurring so early in the original much of the book is spent with Poirot (along with his two police colleagues) trekking back and forth between suspects, trying to work out who did it - and how. In the adaptation suspicion falls much more heavily - and more quickly - upon Lady Horbury, an inveterate gambler, who owed Madame Giselle lots of money.
In the original Gale and Grey fall for each other, but, by the end, Poirot engineers for the latter to go on an archaeological dig with the Duponts (young Jean also has a soft spot for her). In the adaptation Poirot is left consoling a tearful Grey.
In the original when Gale is unearthed he turns on Poirot and declares, "You damned interfering little mountebank!" For TV there is a more subdued, almost touching, scene where Grey asks him why he did it. "For the money, Jane, for a great deal of money", is his rueful reply.
Published: 1935
There are some 'whodunit?' plots that develop with a bewildering array of suspects, all with means and motive. A less common, alternative approach is the type of storyline where it appears nobody could have done it. The latest story to be adapted in Agatha Christie's Poirot falls in the latter category.
Death in the Clouds concerns the murder of Madame Giselle, a French moneylender, on board a plane from Paris to London. Poirot is one of the passengers. She is found dead in her seat, shortly before the plane is due to land, with a puncture mark on her neck. An initial suggestion of an allergic reaction to a wasp sting (a wasp is seen buzzing around the cabin) gives way to murder when Poirot finds a small dart on the floor. The subsequent discovery of a blowpipe (lodged where Poirot had been sitting!) leads to the assumption that this is how she was killed. But who could have stood up and used a blowpipe without the other passengers seeing?
Poirot eventually deduces that one passenger, Norman Gale, a dentist, had donned his dentist's coat in the lavatory and walked down the aisle as if he were a steward (on the basis that nobody notices a steward) and had pushed the dart into Madame Giselle's neck. Motive? Money. He had recently married Giselle's abandoned daughter, who stood to inherit a fortune. Gale had utilised both the wasp and the blowpipe to confuse the authorities.
The adaptation adheres closely to the central facts of the story, but not without significant changes of detail. Some of these changes do affect the pace and emphases in the story.
The original opens with the plane about to take off. One passenger, Jane Grey, is the focus of attention (the 'protagonist', to use a writer's term). Madame Giselle is dead by the end of the first chapter.
By contrast, the adaptation features quite a prelude to the fatal flight, and is developed around the French Tennis Championships in Paris (won by England's Fred Perry). Poirot sees another passenger, Lady Horbury, arguing with Madame Giselle at a party.
No fewer than four characters are cut for the adaptation: archaeologist Armand Dupont (his son Jean survives the cull for TV), businessman James Ryder (whose financial woes make him an obvious 'red herring' to be under the thumb of the moneylender), Doctor Bryant (whose medical background might equip him with a knowledge of the snake poison on the dart, and the means of acquiring it), and a junior steward, Davis (for TV Miss Grey - a hairdresser in the original - becomes the colleague of the senior steward, Mitchell).
Japp is prominent in the original, although the French inspector, Fournier, is given more of a role than in the adaptation, frequently expressing sympathy with Poirot's methods.
With the murder occurring so early in the original much of the book is spent with Poirot (along with his two police colleagues) trekking back and forth between suspects, trying to work out who did it - and how. In the adaptation suspicion falls much more heavily - and more quickly - upon Lady Horbury, an inveterate gambler, who owed Madame Giselle lots of money.
In the original Gale and Grey fall for each other, but, by the end, Poirot engineers for the latter to go on an archaeological dig with the Duponts (young Jean also has a soft spot for her). In the adaptation Poirot is left consoling a tearful Grey.
In the original when Gale is unearthed he turns on Poirot and declares, "You damned interfering little mountebank!" For TV there is a more subdued, almost touching, scene where Grey asks him why he did it. "For the money, Jane, for a great deal of money", is his rueful reply.
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
31. The A.B.C Murders
Air date: 05/01/1992
Published: 1936
The fourth series of Agatha Christie's Poirot had a different feel to it, being made up of just three feature-length episodes (a glimpse of things to come).
Continuity with what had gone before was maintained, however: the episodes were broadcast in the now customary 'Sunday evening Poirot' slot early in the year, and were shown on consecutive weeks (retaining the sense of it being a series). Both of these features would disappear in future years.
Mere mention of the episode that kicked off the series causes a small degree of amusement for me and my children. In those early days of the set-top-box freeview channels it seemed, at one point, as if our beloved ITV3 was showing this episode every other week!
The A.B.C Murders is an interesting tale, both in the original and in adaptation, and revolves around the ingenious idea of someone 'hiding' a murder in a series of apparently random murders.
Hercule Poirot receives a series of letters, from an anonymous 'A.B.C', warning of murders that will take place in various towns: Andover, then Bexhill, then Churston (down in Devon) and, finally, at Doncaster (during the running of the St Leger horse race). A copy of the A.B.C. train timetable is found at the scene of every murder, and it turns out that the surnames of the victims begin with the corresponding letter of the alphabet. It all appears to be the work of a madman.
In the original the narrating by Hastings is interspersed with chapters designated "Not from Captain Hastings' Personal Narrative". These slowly introduce the character of Alexander Bonaparte Cust, a travelling stockings salesman. The frequency of these chapters, and the general pace of the book, accelerates as Cust's story moves ever closer to the main plot, with Poirot, Hastings and the police trying to track down the 'A.B.C murderer'. In the adaptation the coming together of these two plotlines is handled particularly well.
Family and friends of the victims tag along as a kind of unofficial 'team' to help Poirot. The upshot is that one of them has used and set-up Cust, an epileptic and very suggestible individual, arranging for him to be in each town on the day the murders are committed. Although Cust is eventually arrested, Poirot is not happy with the outcome and deduces that Franklin Clarke, brother of the third victim, is actually responsible, and killed his brother for his fortune.
The adaptation is remarkably faithful to the original, both in plot detail and sequence. At Poirot's summing up Clarke tries unsuccessfully to shoot himself in the original; for TV he does a runner and hides in a darkened theatre - only to be caught by the police. In both he accuses Poirot of being a "jackanapes" after being rumbled.
In the original Inspector Japp appears only at the beginning and then briefly later on in the story. For TV he is, of course, heading up the police investigations throughout.
One other point of note. In reviewing Peril at End House (episode 11 at the beginning of series two) I referred to the issues of chronology and of Poirot's retirement: two interrelated problems that occur in the canon of Poirot stories (partly because Agatha Christie chose to make Poirot reasonably old from the outset). In the original of The A.B.C. Murders Hastings is already married and living in Argentina. At the beginning of the story he has returned to the UK on business. Mention is made of Poirot supposedly having retired to grow marrows. Poirot says this was scuppered by a murder (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, possibly, although it was published ten years earlier). All this changes for TV. At the beginning Hastings has just returned from a six-month holiday in South America (with a stuffed caiman he had shot!), and no mention is made of the retirement issue (after all, it would be another eight years before The Murder of Roger Ackroyd would be aired on TV). In the original Japp, in making a quip about Poirot's use of hair tonic, appears to make oblique references to The Mystery of the Blue Train, Death in the Clouds, and Lord Edgware Dies. As none of these stories had been adapted yet this reference also has to disappear for TV.
The stuffed caiman provides a typically amusing ending to the adaptation with Cust - who visits Poirot to express his thanks - being fascinated to hear how Hastings bagged it. As he begins to recount the story Poirot and Japp surreptitiously make their exit.
Published: 1936
The fourth series of Agatha Christie's Poirot had a different feel to it, being made up of just three feature-length episodes (a glimpse of things to come).
Continuity with what had gone before was maintained, however: the episodes were broadcast in the now customary 'Sunday evening Poirot' slot early in the year, and were shown on consecutive weeks (retaining the sense of it being a series). Both of these features would disappear in future years.
Mere mention of the episode that kicked off the series causes a small degree of amusement for me and my children. In those early days of the set-top-box freeview channels it seemed, at one point, as if our beloved ITV3 was showing this episode every other week!
The A.B.C Murders is an interesting tale, both in the original and in adaptation, and revolves around the ingenious idea of someone 'hiding' a murder in a series of apparently random murders.
Hercule Poirot receives a series of letters, from an anonymous 'A.B.C', warning of murders that will take place in various towns: Andover, then Bexhill, then Churston (down in Devon) and, finally, at Doncaster (during the running of the St Leger horse race). A copy of the A.B.C. train timetable is found at the scene of every murder, and it turns out that the surnames of the victims begin with the corresponding letter of the alphabet. It all appears to be the work of a madman.
In the original the narrating by Hastings is interspersed with chapters designated "Not from Captain Hastings' Personal Narrative". These slowly introduce the character of Alexander Bonaparte Cust, a travelling stockings salesman. The frequency of these chapters, and the general pace of the book, accelerates as Cust's story moves ever closer to the main plot, with Poirot, Hastings and the police trying to track down the 'A.B.C murderer'. In the adaptation the coming together of these two plotlines is handled particularly well.
Family and friends of the victims tag along as a kind of unofficial 'team' to help Poirot. The upshot is that one of them has used and set-up Cust, an epileptic and very suggestible individual, arranging for him to be in each town on the day the murders are committed. Although Cust is eventually arrested, Poirot is not happy with the outcome and deduces that Franklin Clarke, brother of the third victim, is actually responsible, and killed his brother for his fortune.
The adaptation is remarkably faithful to the original, both in plot detail and sequence. At Poirot's summing up Clarke tries unsuccessfully to shoot himself in the original; for TV he does a runner and hides in a darkened theatre - only to be caught by the police. In both he accuses Poirot of being a "jackanapes" after being rumbled.
In the original Inspector Japp appears only at the beginning and then briefly later on in the story. For TV he is, of course, heading up the police investigations throughout.
One other point of note. In reviewing Peril at End House (episode 11 at the beginning of series two) I referred to the issues of chronology and of Poirot's retirement: two interrelated problems that occur in the canon of Poirot stories (partly because Agatha Christie chose to make Poirot reasonably old from the outset). In the original of The A.B.C. Murders Hastings is already married and living in Argentina. At the beginning of the story he has returned to the UK on business. Mention is made of Poirot supposedly having retired to grow marrows. Poirot says this was scuppered by a murder (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, possibly, although it was published ten years earlier). All this changes for TV. At the beginning Hastings has just returned from a six-month holiday in South America (with a stuffed caiman he had shot!), and no mention is made of the retirement issue (after all, it would be another eight years before The Murder of Roger Ackroyd would be aired on TV). In the original Japp, in making a quip about Poirot's use of hair tonic, appears to make oblique references to The Mystery of the Blue Train, Death in the Clouds, and Lord Edgware Dies. As none of these stories had been adapted yet this reference also has to disappear for TV.
The stuffed caiman provides a typically amusing ending to the adaptation with Cust - who visits Poirot to express his thanks - being fascinated to hear how Hastings bagged it. As he begins to recount the story Poirot and Japp surreptitiously make their exit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)