Poirot - the 7th Collection...

Introduction

David Suchet returns as Belgium's most famous detective Hercule Poirot in his eleventh series and seventh DVD collection with four adventures based on novels by creator Agatha Christie; although only three of the four included for review. It would appear that all of these episodes were broadcast in 2008.

Mrs McGinty's Dead
Charwoman Mrs McGinty was murdered just shy of a year ago and her introverted lodger has just been sentenced to death for her murder, but the policeman responsible for his arrest no longer believes he did it. Engaged by said policeman, Poirot travels to the village of Broadhinny to investigate alongside novelist and would-be detective Ariadne Oliver (Zoë Wanamaker).

Third Girl
An heiress comes to Poirot believing that she has killed her old Nanny. Poirot and Mrs Oliver attempt to seek the truth against a backdrop of horrific events from the girl's youth that centres around the suicide of her mother.

Appointment With Death
Poirot joins an expedition to meet up with Lord Boynton, an archaeologist searching for the skull of John The Baptist. With his whole family there (natural and step siblings), his wife Lady Boynton, a prodigious stock broker, is murdered and family secrets may lie behind the murder.

Cat Among The Pigeons (not included for review)
The horrific murder of a games mistress at an exclusive girls' school brings Poirot one of his toughest cases yet, encompassing international espionage, a middle Eastern revolution and a missing Princess.

Overall

Can't really say why but I've never really gotten on with David Suchet as Poirot. I've never been a massive Agatha Christie fan anyway so maybe that's part of it, but I remember and prefer Peter Ustinov as the Belgian detective from the little I've been exposed to it. That's not to say that I hold anything against Suchet in particular as he is a superb actor, but this is a series that I've never managed to watch one episode all the way through, until now.

Not sure why I was only given three episodes out of the four to review but still at the least it's an hour and a half less time to watch it before writing so I can be at least grateful for that I suppose. I'm sure that this used to be in an hour-long format mid-week when it started rather than the now traditional Sunday evening detective feature-length slot (which is where I assume this ended up for transmission). Of course, I could be completely wrong but if I am then I'm quite pleased in a way that I missed the previous ten series.



Suchet seems to have made Poirot his own in such a way as Jeremy Brett totally owns Holmes in my opinion, although I wouldn't say Suchet's character is as strong as Brett's at all. I also feel that the Holmes' stories are much stronger than Poirot's despite being a more modern story, albeit in the 1930's. I just feel that, despite never reading any of the massive amount of books that Christie wrote, that the adaptations are just stringing out the stories so that they last the full feature-length time that is required. The stories are simple ones regarding lust, love, betrayal, etc with none of the modern motivations, deceptions or ingenious methods of killing. This does hinder the series to a degree but what hinders it most is the gathering of the suspects at the end of each episode so that Poirot can break through all the red herrings and false clues to reveal the murderer. Now this worked really well for Peter Falk's Columbo but I never felt it worked here as it just takes so damned long. I timed it in two of the episodes (as it nagged me after the first) and for a story that lasts around an hours and a half (give or take a few minutes), it takes Poirot between 15 and 20 minutes to expose the murderer(s). Just get it over with already…

I did quite like Zoë Wanamaker as the Agatha Christie wannabe murder mystery author, although Poirot fans are inevitably missing his more usual sidekick of Captain Hastings (Sharpe's Hugh Fraser). I also liked some of the guest stars such as Sarah Smart, Emma Cunliffe and Tim Curry. Just not enough to stop myself being half bored by it all though.

Hopefully I won't feel the same after watching Rupert Everett's turn tonight in his second Holmes story…