“Agatha Christie’s Poirot” began its “dark half” by adapting four masterpieces in Season 9. Season 10 (2005-06, ITV and A&E), on the other hand, tackles two less-respected novels along with two well-regarded ones. The changes to “The Mystery of the Blue Train” are outstanding, as it retains Katherine Grey – one of Christie’s classic one-off helpers to Poirot – but improves the plotting.
“Taken at the Flood” doesn’t fare as well, even though the adaptation is faithful. A fun evil character on the page becomes so unlikeable on screen you’ll wish he was the murder victim. The actor steals the show in a bad way, but in “After the Funeral,” an actress steals the show in a good way in an implausible but entertaining identity-switch scheme. For whatever reason, mundane evil doesn’t ring true and insane evil does.
The writers rejigger the masterpiece “Cards on the Table” to add multiple gay characters – as per the Aughts P.C. movement – but it’s such a strong novel that it’s not hurt too much. Out of fidelity to the source, I wish the TV show wouldn’t do that, but it’s a difficult soapbox to balance on, so it’s probably best to shrug and move on.
“Agatha Christie’s Poirot” Season 10 (2005-06)
ITV and A&E, four episodes
Writers: Guy Andrews, Nick Dear, Philomena McDonagh
Stars: David Suchet
Poirot feels more in the background, and melancholy, as we move further into the dark years. Ariadne Oliver joins the supporting cast in “Cards” as his author friend, and that’s a bright spot. But when butler George (assisting Poirot, settled back into his refurbished Whitehaven flat) and Inspector Spence join in “Flood,” they are footnotes more so than cast additions.
Here are my rankings of the four Season 10 episodes. (SPOILERS FOLLOW.)
1. “The Mystery of the Blue Train” (1, Guy Andrews)
In his first “Poirot” credit, Andrews remixes Christie’s novel, putting the characters and elements together in newly dramatic ways. It’s not a bad choice, because the book – Christie’s personal least favorite, as she wrote it during a dark period of her life – has strong pieces but they don’t all stick together.
What I remembered most from the book is Poirot’s relationship with Katherine Grey (from St. Mary Mead! – although that’s not mentioned in the episode). She’s his earliest one-shot assistant, and the episode does her justice. Georgina Rylance looks and acts exactly as I pictured. Andrews starts with a sweet scene in a restaurant where the newly rich Katherine stumbles over how to act when the wine is delivered to her table, and Poirot helps her out. He then serves as her “avuncular” – apparently a surrogate uncle – as both travel on the Blue Train.
The episode — also featuring Elliott Gould, James D’Arcy and Alice Eve – leans more toward character than mystery, reshaping a weakness of Christie’s novel into a strength. The mystery under Andrews’ pen isn’t half bad, either, as the love-triangle theme continues from Season 9 (the victim has two suitors). Serving as spices are inheritances, theft of a ruby and hidden relationships.
These Christie tropes make for pleasant enough viewing, and then Andrews honors the most original part of the novel (expanded from “The Plymouth Express,” which was an episode in Season 3) with a secretary and maid being the villains rather than part of the scenery. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Novel: “The Mystery of the Blue Train” (1928)
2. “After the Funeral” (3, Philomena McDonagh)
This novel is easy to overlook because it’s another manor mystery where the patriarch dies and controversy erupts over his will. And, OK, it features one of Christie’s least plausible plots, but as a TV episode, it’s magnetic. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn “After the Funeral” was among Rian Johnson’s inspirations for his “Knives Out” films, which blend the engagement of solving a mystery with the amusement of showy roles and implausible behavior.
Monica Dolan gets one of the series’ juiciest roles as Miss Gilchrist, a companion to Cora, the battiest member of the Abernethie clan that has gathered for the funeral. It’s unclear through most of the run time if Mr. Abernethie was murdered or died naturally, but there’s no ambiguity about Cora being chopped up with a hatchet.
Michael Fassbender and Lucy Punch provide the (by today’s standards) star power, and it’s interesting to note that romantically linked cousins skirt the edge of controversy in 1930s London. But it’s Dolan who stands out – and continues Season 10’s theme (from “Blue Train”) of keeping a wary eye on the help.
Dolan’s two-sided performance is appropriate for making Gilchrist’s insane scheme seem like it could plausibly happen. Granted, the fact that we as an audience never see the real Cora makes us easy to fool, and you’d think the family members could tell the difference between a real and a fake Cora, despite the long estrangement. The more one thinks about the story’s plausibility, the shakier it becomes, but the entertainment value can’t be argued with.
Novel: “After the Funeral” (1953)
3. “Cards on the Table” (2, Nick Dear)
The novel is one of Christie’s most ingenious feats, as she clearly presents that there are only four suspects in a room at the time the party host, the drugged Mr. Shaitana, is stabbed. Dear’s teleplay doesn’t do much to squander that, so the plot remains incongruously gripping as we learn the possible motives of the quartet.
Another strong point: This marks the debut of mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, and Zoe Wanamaker nicely plays her as someone who seems disconnected from the moment, but it’s because her brain is simultaneously working down other paths. When she’s fretting over a tangled plot in one of her novels and chomping on apples, the parallel to Christie herself is delightful.
Those are the upshots, but the downsides of this episode are fascinating. Colonel Race, despite being seen in “Death on the Nile” last season, and Superintendent Battle, a recurring Christie character not seen in a “Poirot” episode, are excised in favor of two random investigators. So the idea of four super-sleuths matching wits against four people who possibly committed a past murder gets thrown out. Because we don’t have Poirot and the trusted Race coming upon the corpse, the wrinkle that a fifth person (the superintendent we’ve just met) could be the killer has to be addressed, thus defeating the “four versus four” symmetry.
Another oddity is the unreliable omniscient narrator. The four suspects, or people connected to them, tell stories of the controversial incident from the past that could supply the motive for killing Shaitana. Of course a person can be lying, and I understand the “show, don’t (merely) tell” instinct, but now we’re in “Clue” territory. While “Clue” is a great movie, there’s no need for this serious brain-puzzler to go there.
Novel: “Cards on the Table” (1936)
4. “Taken at the Flood” (4, Andrews)
This uneven episode is a prime example of how the written word and moving pictures can play differently even when the narrative is almost identical. I found the book to be a believable portrayal of Lynn Marchmont’s (Amanda Douge) irrational love for David Hunter (Elliot Cowan) even though – as she admits – it’s not good for her. On screen, Cowan plays Hunter as a schemer so irredeemable that it’s unbelievable that Lynn would not be repelled on every level. Perhaps it can be chalked up to miscasting.
The macro and micro Christie plots are good, with a post-bombing identity switch factoring into the former and a temporary fake-out of a nosy witness playing into the latter. Nonetheless, the conflict (a family robbed of their wealth on one side, accused gold-digger Rosaleen and brother David on the other) is a perpetual dark cloud over the mystery.
Not surprisingly, Andrews excises Christie’s oft-criticized “happy ending” wherein Lynn chooses longtime beau Rowley over David because he mans up and tries to strangle her. Even if it went over with readers, it wouldn’t fit with this increasingly P.C. series. Even with that subtraction, though, Lynn’s choice of romantic partner never rings true, and a viewer – and possibly even Poirot himself — feels out of balance right through to the credits.
Novel: “Taken at the Flood” (1948)
IMDb Top 250 trivia
- “Poirot” ranks at No. 151 on the list with an 8.6 rating.
- “After the Funeral” tops the season’s ratings with an 8.0, while “Taken at the Flood” brings up the rear with a 7.4.