Hercule Poirot and the Stolen AIBU

[SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum]

Would Poirot survive in an internet age?

What would Agatha Christie have made of it?

And can anyone explain the plot of Sparkling Cyanide to me? I have all AC's books and love to read them as I fall asleep. But I have never understood the ending of Sparkling Cyanide.

When I lived in Moscow, AC books were the only books in English that didn't cost £12 so I read them all. And then brought them home in my suitcase which was 13 kilos overweight much prefer Hercule to Miss Marple

I love Poirot so much more than marple. Christie fuelled my love of the 30s and all things art deco. I think Evil Under the Sun is my favourite but it could be because I've stayed at the hotel it was written in. This thread is making me want to watch some HP tonight.

Is Hasting's wife as much of a bastard in the books?

My parents were out in Iran and Iraq during the late 1940s and 1950s where Dad was a port agent. That was the time that Max Mallowan was doing some digs. Mum was asked to host a lunch party for AC as she'd come out to visit him. Mum said that AC was a bit of an arrogant dragon but MM was a sweetie! 😁

Mitebiteatnite Haven't RTFT but did any one else really hate Kenneth Branagh's vanity project Murder on the Orient Express? I love AC, so I was so excited when I saw it advertised, but bitterly disappointed when I watched it

Yes, this! Hated this version, so disappointed.

My favourite is 'Evil under the Sun' and I love the Peter Ustinov film version. I get so excited when it is on tv, on a Sunday afternoon.

Hasting's wife

The books and ITV TV show have him marrying different women, in the books he married Dulcie Duveen, in the TV show the character was cut and he marries her sister Bella.

My favourite is 'Evil under the Sun' and I love the Peter Ustinov film version. I get so excited when it is on tv, on a Sunday afternoon.

I have a box set of Evil Under The Sun, Death On The Nile, Orient Express and The Mirror Crack’d (Angela Lansbury as Marple, smokes cigarettes, oddly tall - doesn’t do it for me), and it is fabulous!

*those recent Christmas BBC adapations by Sophie Phelps have been travesties. Phelps updated the stories [while retaining the period] to include explicit sex scenes and swearing. I'm not a prude but this takes the tales totally away from their context. I enjoy Christies because they are totally of their time. It doesn't matter that such 'cosy' English village life was always a little unrealistic - it was escapism. Phelps also changed the personalities of some characters and at least one of the endings.

They would have been more honestly described as 'loosely based' on a Christie story. *

Couldn’t agree more. The only part I disagree with is the alleged coziness of village life. I’d love a tv adaption of AC (or Dorothy Sayers, or a number of other golden age women writers) that manages to bring out the darkness and realism lurking in the books - without resorting to lurid sex scenes. One of the things I love about vintage detective stories is that you learn quite a bit about what society was like despite the obvious formula. Attitudes to working women, makeup, foreigners, various foodstuffs, church, political views, homosexuality... there’s a lot there that’s alluded to even if not stated directly. I think the villages are rather dark at times. The dialogue is barbed and there can be an aura of hopelessness. People are generally not good (unlike with Patricia Wentworth where the central young couple are always good and heroic and get engaged at the end).

I read these avidly as a pre-teen. I moved from Famous Five to Agatha Christie!

I can’t remember the plots of all of them but I do think Suchet and Hickson were the best Poirot and Marple. I love watching the adaptations on a quiet Sat/Sun afternoon, my guilty pleasure!

I think my favourite is Death on the Nile (I actually watched the Suchet version again last night - it's like a visual comfort blanket!), but Cat Among the Pigeons and Death Under the Sun run it a very close second/third!

I remember having a very heated debate with my school librarian when I was about 14, in which we were arguing over whether Miss Marple or Poirot was the best detective

I love cat among the pigeons but far prefer miss marple to poirot.

But does anyone else find her very racist??

But does anyone else find her very racist??
She was very much of her time, sometimes surprisingly modern, like Etienne de Sousa and highlighting racial prejudice and saying outright that a jury will take one look at him and convict.
Sometimes um.... Kimbo Akibombo... With their woolly hair and Pickaninny smile.

Def racist but - and please take this the right way - not in a malicious way. Broad minded enough to think a black doctor should be treated decently but still of the opinion he should be able to shrug off a pickaninny insult.

I remember finding miss Marple’s love of the death penalty very distasteful.

Ah I love Poirot! Has anyone read any of the slash fanfic? It is truly adorable, honestly. Very gentle totally in character Poirot and Hastings, but just ever so slightly tipped in that direction.

The classic is here if you’re interested: <a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110821223517/www.slashfic.co.uk/THE_REAL.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20110821223517/www.slashfic.co.uk/THE_REAL.htm

SydneyCarton
I have a box set of Evil Under The Sun, Death On The Nile, Orient Express and The Mirror Crack’d (Angela Lansbury as Marple, smokes cigarettes, oddly tall - doesn’t do it for me), and it is fabulous!

I NEED this box set! Where did you get it? Has it been put together by someone? Does it have a particular name?

Sorry to be needy SydneyCarton, but the future happiness of my sundays depend on this

The ITV player app has lots of old John Suchet Poirot on there, and a few Miss Marple too. ITV3 is my favourite channel. I know it's not marketed at my age group because the adverts are all for cruises, bladder weakness products, nutrition drinks and life insurance

Just looked at ITV hub and it looks like Miss Marple has gone, but I did find 12, yes 12 series of Poirot. Happy Viewing

*I love Cat among the Pigeons but far prefer Miss Marple to Poirot.

But does anyone else find her very racist*

Miss Marple was as racist as anyone living during her times would have been. You see the same anti-Jew/Black people in Dorothy L. Sayers.

I think that AC just reflected the notions prevalent during the times in which her characters lived.

Does anyone remember an old dramatization of Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

I think it was the first AC I saw on TV.

Oh fab, an Agatha Christie thread . I spent most of my meagre pocket money on her novels when I was young, probably far too young to understand some of the themes and references in her books.

My favourite was The Man in the Brown Suit. I think because it was jolly good fun. Now I prefer Ordeal by Innocence. Also have a sneaking affection for Sad Cypress, despite it being slooooow, as it was the first one I read.

I rather like Julia Mckenzie as Miss Marple. I thought A Pocket Full of Rye with her was very good. Geraldine MacEwan was too much pantomime.

Lord Peter Wimsey does look at some of the less cosy aspects of post-WW1 Britain. People who had served in the war being sick of Armistice Day sentimentality (Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club). Drug addiction taking its toll (Murder Must Advertise). Single women making their own way in the world.

Well, while you all were spending your pocket money on AC I was spending mine on Simenon. And experimenting with gaulois and pastis I loved the Maigret books. Still got the paperbacks.

Reading this tucked up in bed with a copy of the Mysterious affair at Styles. Joan Hickson was wonderful.

@plunkplunkfizz @SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum There have TV adaptations of Parker Pyne, around the same time as the Francessca Annis Tuppence series I'd say.

I’m a ran of the Discontented Soldier and Middle Aged Wife episodes. They get cycled on UK TV drama or Yesterday channels once a year or so about the same time as Tommy and Tuppence.

I agree about the Sarah Phelps dramatisations. I just about forgave And Then There Were None* because they at least stuck to the original murderer despite all the hanky panky. But Ordeal by Innocence was a complete joke. DH refused to watch it with me because of my —ranting— running commentary .

The 4:50 From Paddington with Joan Hickson was a joy when I first watched it. Truly lovely bit of TV, Does it stand up well now?

*My first, second-hand copy of ATTWN contained the original, racist version of the rhyme. This was in the late 80’s or early 90’s and the book wasn’t that old, maybe printed early 80’s? Really pretty shocking that it wasn’t changed before that.