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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Hercule Poirot and the Stolen AIBU

219 replies

SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum · 06/09/2019 12:41

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.

OP posts:
SydneyCarton · 07/09/2019 16:59

Sean Connery is in Murder on the Orient Express. It’s a star-studded cast!

CaptainKirksSpookyghost · 07/09/2019 17:01

You're right he is.
It just seems weird to have Lansbury and Ustinov then Connery.

TheMustressMhor · 07/09/2019 17:29

It always surprises me how AC managed to write The Big Four while going through a very traumatic divorce.

TheMustressMhor · 07/09/2019 17:42

I love it when AC makes fun of archaeologists in her books.

Just sly little digs here and there.

TheMustressMhor · 07/09/2019 18:59

I can still re-read all of the books, despite having read them all countless times.

banivani · 08/09/2019 09:01

Mustress

*I love it when AC makes fun of archaeologists in her books.

Just sly little digs here and there.*

I see what you did there 😉

TheMustressMhor · 08/09/2019 11:47

Fucksake banivani I have only just realised that what I wrote could be construed as a pun.

LOL, as they say elsewhere...

SusanneLinder · 08/09/2019 13:03

I grew up on AG. My mum was a huge fan. Only trouble is if you are an AG fan, it spoils other whodunnits as I can usually spot the murderer at 20 paces...😂.
Think some of my favourites were Mystery of the Blue Train, Murder on Orient Express, Mrs McGinty's Dead and Hickory Dickory Dock.
I love Hercule Poirot and just love the Art Deco in the Suchet adaptations. Joan Hickson was the perfect Marple and I totally detested the new Marples because they kept changing it.🙄.
Not a huge fan of Tommy and Tuppence, but I did like N or M.

TheMustressMhor · 08/09/2019 13:15

I liked N or M too but I disliked the name Mrs. Sprot for some reason.

banivani · 08/09/2019 13:23

Mustress that made it even funnier!

TheMustressMhor · 08/09/2019 14:12

N or M

Netmums or Mumsnet?

TheMustressMhor · 08/09/2019 20:06

What do you think of Passenger to Frankfurt?

I was always bewildered by the thought of Project Benvo.

Clawdy · 08/09/2019 22:22

Anyone like The Mysterious Mr Quin? I loved the stories when I was in my teens.They're rather strange, and slightly supernatural. I've always wondered why, as far as I know, they've never been dramatised. Harley Quin and old Mr. Satterthwaite are really intriguing characters.

CopperTrolley · 08/09/2019 22:46

I really didn’t like Passenger to Frankfurt. I don’t think her writing suits a slightly more modern setting.

TheMustressMhor · 09/09/2019 15:04

I think by the time she wrote Passenger to Frankfurt she was beginning to develop dementia.

None of the books written around this time, or after it, have any substance. They were only published because she was famous. Her daughter tried very hard to stop them being in the public domain.

SusanneLinder · 09/09/2019 19:12

Outing myself probably, but I went to school with someone whose surname was Sprott. Grin. Probably why I didn't mind it.

CoolCarrie · 09/09/2019 21:15

Ken Branagh is filming his version of Death On The Nile atm so brace yourselves for that ! He didn’t used to have such an ego

Pomegranatepompom · 09/09/2019 21:17

Love AC books and most of the films/dramatisations.
The Sophie Hannah books are ok, not as good but worth a read.

TheMustressMhor · 10/09/2019 02:42

I think it's worth trying one of the Sophie Hannah books via the library before splashing out on them.

I found them a bit meh.

TheMustressMhor · 10/09/2019 02:43

And Clawdy I love Mr. Quin. And Mr. Satterthwaite.

Clawdy · 10/09/2019 08:12

I could see Toby Jones playing Mr Satterthwaite. Mr Quin would need to be a mysteriously dark and handsome actor.......

plunkplunkfizz · 10/09/2019 08:14

Tom Ellis

Clawdy · 10/09/2019 08:56

Just googled Tom Ellis.....good choice!

ShatnersWig · 10/09/2019 09:00

I'm that rare beast. I like Nemesis. Yes, there are some meandering conversations but the general plot and characters I find very interesting. It's really quite dark. Had she written it 15 years earlier when her mind was sharper, I think it could have been one of her best.

I adore all the Hickson adaptations which took the books seriously and never made significant changes (Nemesis they did but to its credit). The castings throughout are splendid and I can't believe anyone finds some of them overacted, especially in comparison with the ITV versions which verge between tongue in cheek to downright farce at times and played very broadly.

I will put a bit of defence in here for Lansbury who gets a lot of stick for her portrayal in The Mirror Crack'd. If you really read your Jane Marple, the character changes considerably over the course of the books (like Poirot, we have to forget they were 'of an age' when they first appeared and will still going 40 years later). In the later books, she is a much more fluffy old dear, although with a razor sharp mind, which is how very often she gets overlooked. This is absolutely spot on with Hickson. In the first couple of books, Murder at the Vicarage and Body in the Library, she's not fluffy at all, but much more matter of fact, occasionally quite vinegary, and more upright, as if a hangover from the Edwardian era. Which is absolutely what Lansbury does.

ShatnersWig · 10/09/2019 09:01

I never thought Zoe Wanamaker right for Ariadne Oliver either, knowing that she was Christie's amusing take on herself. I liked Lally Bowers' version in The Agatha Christie Hour much more.