19. The Adventure of the Western Star

Air date: 04/03/1990
Published: First story in "Poirot Investigates" (1924)

In many of the short stories where he serves as narrator Hastings' inability to make correct logical deductions acts as an obvious foil to the 'little grey cells' of Hercule Poirot.

This contrast is made particularly apparent in the next episode, The Adventure of the Western Star, where Hastings tries so hard to make a contribution.

The story begins with actress Mary Marvell (who, for TV, becomes a Belgian actress Marie Marvelle!). She has recently received threatening letters regarding a jewel (the 'Western Star' of the title), which, the letters claim, forms one eye of an ancient Chinese god's icon. The letters claim the jewel will be taken from her. She and her film star husband, Gregory Rolf, are due to visit one Lord and Lady Yardly - who owns a parallel jewel (the 'Eastern Star') - to discuss a filming project at his estate.

While Poirot is out (to "take some air" in the original, to have his hair cut in the adaptation) Lady Yardly arrives. Hastings, seizing the opportunity, surmises she, too, has received threatening letters about her jewel.

Hastings and Poirot visit the Yardlys and, in a dramatic scene, Lady Yardly's jewel is wrenched from her neck in the dark, seemingly by a Chinaman. On returning to London they hear that the actress's diamond has also been stolen.

As it turns out, there was only ever one jewel, which belonged to Lady Yardly. Following a brief fling between the two, Rolf had blackmailed Lady Yardly to part with her jewel and to have it replaced with a paste. When her husband declared his intent to sell the diamond (to pay off debts) she had contacted Rolf, who had come up with the Chinese ruse to stage the theft of both. Rolf had fabricated the letters to his wife and, of course, Lady Yardly had never received any letters.

There are several changes of detail for the TV adaptation. In the original Poirot pursuades Rolf to return the genuine diamond to him. For TV Rolf doesn't play ball (he is in the process of selling it) and Poirot manages to retrieve it from the dodgy diamond dealer who is brokering the sale. The interested buyer is only referred to obliquely in the original; for TV he becomes Van Brax, a diamond collector who operates on the borders of legality. In fact, the production opens with Japp trying to nail him (a sub-plot that runs, somewhat unsuccessfully, throughout the episode).

In the original denouement Poirot dismisses Mary Marvell (who, in many ways, is the ultimate loser), claiming she has had the publicity, which is all she is interested in. For TV there is a touching scene (spoken largely in French) where Poirot consoles her.

And finally, back to where we began: Hastings. The original short story ends with Hastings rather grumpily accusing Poirot of making a fool of him, and storming out. This would never do for TV, where the short stories almost invariably end on a light note. So here. Hastings is, at most, a tad piqued, but it is smiles all round as he and Poirot enjoy a meal Poirot has cooked for them both.

18. The Kidnapped Prime Minister

Air date: 18/02/1990
Published: Eighth story in "Poirot Investigates" (1924)

The next episode in Agatha Christie's Poirot provides a wonderful platform for our sleuth's "little grey cells".

As the title suggests, the story revolves around the kidnapping of the British Prime Minister, the day before he is due to deliver a crucial speech at a European peace conference. Poirot is called in - on the recommendation of the police - but spends most of the episode exasperating the authorities by thinking rather than acting!

The PM was supposedly kidnapped in France. The car that collected him on arrival is found abandoned, and his private secretary, Daniels, is left bound and gagged. The incident took place the day after a botched attempt was made on his life in the UK.

Poirot eventually deduces that the PM never left England. The botched shooting attempt was rigged so that a heavily bandaged 'double' could make the sea voyage to France before disappearing. Daniels was, of course, involved in the plot.

The TV adaptation is faithful to the general flow of the short story. In the original Poirot actually travels to France before realising he needs to be back in the UK. In the TV version his little grey cells (and propensity to suffer sea-sickness!) bring him to this conclusion even earlier!

Daniels' wife plays a bigger role in the TV version, allowing the writers to include yet another car chase scene (Hastings attempting to follow her after Poirot has flushed her out). Poirot waits by the phone in his flat, which justifies Miss Lemon making an appearance (she is not in the original). Japp appears briefly in the original, but has his usual beefed-up role on TV, and spends most of the episode fretting over Poirot's methods - as he was the one who recommended Poirot to the government!

The biggest change for TV, however, is provided by the kidnappers. In the original they are, in a rather vague way, German sympathisers, and the PM is eventually discovered at the home of one Frau Bertha Ebenthal. For TV Daniels, his wife and the bogus UK car driver are all pro-Irish activists (the chant Eirinn go bragh - Ireland forever - features) and the PM is found, in a final stand-off, at the ancestral home of Mrs Daniels.

17. The Adventure of the Cheap Flat

Air date: 18/02/1990
Published: Third story in "Poirot Investigates" (1924)

American organised crime, the FBI and guns all creep into this latest adventure for Hercule Poirot and his friends.

For that reason the TV adaptation opens with Poirot, Hastings and Japp all watching a James Cagney crime caper at the cinema. Poirot is suitably squeamish at the American propensity to solve everything with guns!

That typical TV opener aside, the adaptation is again very faithful to the basic outline of the original story. The mystery revolves around why a young couple, the Robinsons, should have been offered the rental on a plush flat at such a cheap price.

The reason, it turns out, is their name. An American, Elsa Hart (or Hardt in the original Agatha Christie story: why the TV producers should have omitted the 'd' I'm not sure) managed to pursuade a young Italian-American, Luigi Valdarno, to steal some naval plans from an American government department. Valdarno is later shot dead.

It transpires that Hart then fled to the UK and, having rented out a flat in the name of Robinson, then sub-lets it to a couple (with the same name) - to cover her tracks, should an American organised crime outfit send an assassin to avenge the killing of Valdarno.

There are, as ever, a few cosmetic changes to the TV adaptation. In the original the finale takes place at another home, where Elsa Har(d)t is now living; in the adaptation she is confronted in her dressing room at the slightly sleezy nightclub she is performing at.

In the original Japp is consulted early on, and appears at the end to arrest Hart. In the adaptation he is central to the investigations, hosting a somewhat overbearing FBI agent, Burt. Predictably, Burt initially has no time for Poirot - a "gumshoe" - but is a thankful admirer by the end. In the original Burt is introduced in the final two paragraphs! Miss Lemon - absent in the original - features again, pretending to be a women's magazine writer in order to find out a bit more about Ms Hart the singer. In the original Poirot and Hastings apprehend the assassin at the Robinson's flat and take him to the house where Hardt is living. This is somewhat clumsy. In the adaptation he has been watching the flat for some time, and - having eluded Poirot and Hastings at the flat - turns up at the dressing room in the finale.

Both versions have Poirot renting a flat above the Robinsons, to observe comings and goings, and then breaking into the flat by a service entrance (a coal lift in the original; a rubbish bin back stairs in the TV version).

16. Double sin

Air date: 11/02/1990
Published: Thirteenth story in "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974)

My first use of the 'Little Grey Cells' for several weeks concerned a rather tame affair of genteel fraud.

Double sin sees Poirot and Hastings on holiday down in Devon. They bump into Mary Durrant, a young girl in the process of delivering a collection of miniatures to an American client of her antique-dealing aunt.

The miniatures go missing, but it quickly transpires they were in fact delivered to the American by an elderly woman. Suspicion falls on an odd-looking man, Norton Kane, who may have disguised himself as a woman and sold the collection for the cash.

Poirot works out that it is all, in fact, a scam, being perpetrated by Mary Durrant and her aunt, Elizabeth Penn, with the aim of selling the miniatures - then getting them back as stolen items, in order to sell them again!

While faithful to that basic plot, the adaptation adds a number of embellishments. Norton Kane's character is beefed up and something secretive is clearly going on - although it transpires that in reality he is planning to elope and start a new life with one Lady Amanda Manderley.

In the original Poirot goes on holiday because he is overworked. In the TV production he is somewhat listless because of a lack of interesting cases and, during the course of his vacation, makes it clear to Hastings that he is going to retire. This leads to Hastings doing much of the leg-work in trying to solve the case. A predictable car-chase is shoe-horned in (Hastings and the police pursuing Kane and Lady Manderley before eventually discovering they are not involved in the theft).

Inspector Japp is not in the original, but appears - would you believe - giving a lecture on detective work at the holiday restort Poirot and Hastings are staying in. Poirot slips in to listen, and it is Japp's complimentary words about him that renews his interest in detecting! Miss Lemon (also absent from the original) features at the beginning and end in a rather irrelevant search for some keys at Poirot's flat.

In the original the miniatures are valued at £500; our producers clearly felt this needed bumping up for television: in the adaptation they go for £1500!

15. The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim

Air date: 04/02/1990
Published: Ninth story in "Poirot Investigates" (1924)

At the fifteenth time of asking (well, fourteenth, technically, as they had tackled one novel by now) the TV producers finally dipped into the very first collection of Poirot short stories.

The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim is an enjoyable yarn about deception and fraud. It is also, as my daughter pointed out, one of those stories where you can't help giving the game away a bit when you turn the written word into a visual production.

The Mr Davenheim of the title is a banker who goes missing from his country pile the very afternoon a rival businessman, a Mr Lowen, was due to come and see him. When Davenheim's clothes are dredged from a nearby lake the finger of suspicion seems to point to Lowen. It is later discovered that the safe in Davenheim's study has been broken into, and bearer bonds, cash, and his wife's collection of expensive jewelry taken.

In the original much of the early part of the story is being reported by Inspector Japp to Poirot as they and Hastings share afternoon tea. The adaptation cleverly moves from 'live' story to Japp's account.

Poirot, ever lauding his 'little grey cells', is challenged by Japp to see if he can't solve the case without leaving his home, within seven days.

The police discover that Davenheim's signet ring has been rather clumsily pawned by a local vagrant-come-pickpocket, Billy Kellett. Poirot eventually works out that Kellett is Davenheim's alias. He had been defrauding the bank for years, and converting money into jewelry. In the TV production it's not difficult to spot British character-actor Kenneth Colley (Admiral Piett in two of the original Star Wars films!) playing both Davenheim and Kellett!

A few minor details have been changed for the TV production. In the original Davenheim was supposed to have spent the previous autumn in South America (actually he was being Kellett in prison!); whereas now it is South Africa. There is also a bigger role for Davenheim's wife.

What is more noticeable, however, are the embellishments, several of them quite humorous. Poirot, Hastings and Japp are at the theatre watching a magician. Although apparently bored, Poirot takes up an interest in card tricks and sleights-of-hand - a theme which runs through the episode.

Lowen is now, among other things, a car racing enthusiast (much to the delight of Hastings). Also, for some obscure reason, Poirot's 'confinement' at home coincides with him being asked to look after a friend's parrot.

At one point Hastings talks to it. "Don't fraternise with the creature; I'm still training him", says Poirot. "It's only a parrot", retorts Hastings. "I was talking to the parrot", says Poirot, without looking up from his desk.

14. The Cornish Mystery

Air date: 28/01/1990
Published: Third story in "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974)

I found The Cornish Mystery, both in its original written form and in its TV adaptation, a delightful story to follow.

It concerns a Mrs Pengelley, who visits Poirot from Cornwall, and who expresses the fear that she is being poisoned. The chief suspect is her husband, a dentist, and the motive the "yellow-haired hussy" who works as his assistant.

When Poirot and Hastings later travel down to Cornwall to see her they arrive to find she has just died! The local GP is convinced she was suffering from acute gastritis, but Poirot makes some initial investigations before returning to London. When, three months later, Edward Pengelley announces his engagement to his assistant, the outcry leads to an exhumation of the body. The discovery of arsenic poisoning prompts the arrest of Mr Pengelley.

It turns out that the motive was not love, but money. Mrs Pengelley's neice Freda was engaged to a local tailor, Jacob Radnor. Freda believed her aunt had a mid-life crush on him, but it turns out he had deliberately encouraged this. Radnor poisoned her and planned for her husband to go to the gallows for it so that he and Freda could pocket the family assets.

In the original Mrs Pengelley is very nervous about publicity when visiting Poirot. In the adaptation this is played out by her reluctance to come to his office. Instead Poirot and Hastings have to meet her in the park. Miss Lemon brokers this, although (again) she is not actually in the original. Japp isn't in the original, either, although turns up in the adaptation at the exhumation. Once again, he fears the worst: that Poirot will spoil what he thinks is a simple case.

Despite these differences the adaptation is remarkably faithful to the original, with large chunks of dialogue being taken verbatim from the original short story. For this reason the embellishments, such as they are, stand out all the more.

First, although referred to, Pengelley's assistant plays no real part in the original, but in the adaptation Poirot and Hastings visit her during their initial enquiries. This enables the producers to indulge in one facet of the team's characteristics that regularly surfaced: Hastings' soft-spot for an attractive woman. Here he is utterly tongue-tied in the dentist's surgery. When he and Poirot leave he exclaims: "What a stunner!"

Second, in the adaptation we see the funeral and a reading of the will, as well as Hastings and Miss Lemon dabbling in ancient Chinese oracle reading (which, I felt, was an unnecessary intrusion).

Third, in the original, Poirot - who knows he has no evidence - convinces Radnor to sign a confession, promising to give him 24 hours start before passing it to the police. Part of his ruse is to point out of the window to two bystanders and imply they are tailing him. Interestingly, in the adaptation, it is Hastings - in a rare moment of quick-witted improvisation - who does this (much to Poirot's amazement!). Interestingly, the original ends at this point, with the implication that Poirot will keep to his promise. In the adaptation it is clear he is not going to do so (to the annoyance of the ever upright and decent Hastings!).

Finally, the presence of Japp allows for the not uncommon 'light' ending. On this occasion, Poirot and Hastings disappear just before the Chief Inspector is informed his case against Pengelley has collapsed!

13. The Lost Mine

Air date: 21/01/1990
Published: Eighth story in "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974)

This latest episode, in many ways, illustrates elements of what I might call the 'formula of adaptation' in those early days of Poirot one-hour episodes.

The basic story surrounds the proposed sale of a map of a Chinese silver mine to an English company. A Mr Wu-Ling turns up in the UK and books into a hotel prior to a business meeting. He subsequently goes missing and is found dead. Chief suspects are a rather down-and-out character called Dyer and a young bank clerk by the name of Charles Lester, who has a passion for gambling. In the end it turns out to be a Mr Pearson, from the company planning to buy the map.

In the adaptation a number of details and aspects of the plot are changed; more than had become customary, in my view. It is now a bank planning on acquiring the map and Mr Pearson is a director of the bank. Charles Lester, however, is a slightly dodgy American solicitor, whose weakness is opium, not gambling (Pearson is the gambler). Dyer (who is involved with the Chinatown narcotics world) has a much bigger role in the story. In fact, the whole sequence of events is different.

In the original Poirot is telling the story as flashback to Hastings after they begin discussing stocks and shares (Poirot had been given shares in "Burma Mines Ltd" for his part in solving the case). Japp isn't in the original (although he is briefly referred to): now he has a prominent role, using a operations room to dramatically co-ordinate the arrest of Dyer.

So much for the plot (which I didn't think was the most riveting). What do I mean by elements of the 'formula' of adaptation?

First, there is often a thematic link between the crime and Poirot and his 'team'. In this instance, as this is a tale about money and business, Hastings and Poirot are playing Monopoly; Poirot's bank account is overdrawn (it is later discovered that a cheque has not been paid in); and not only Hastings but even Miss Lemon (who is not in the original) are suddenly now followers of stocks and shares.

Also, it was becoming increasingly common for the one-hour episodes to begin and end on the same, slightly tangential piece of humour: in this instance, the Monopoly game. At the beginning Poirot doesn't really see the point of it (presumably because he is not doing too well), but at the end of the episode he wins - much to Hastings' annoyance.