The ABC Murders

[Carlyrichards]

Anyone watching? I like Rupert Grint in this.

I didn't find it shoe-horned. McDonald led a National Government dominated by Conservatives, which was implementing protectionist policies. The British Union of Fascists had been founded the year before the episode is set in.

I told my parents if only visit if they didn't watch this. Fortunately the Suchet version was on earlier so we watched that instead. No one else can play Poirot. Just as Jeremy Brett is Sherlock Holmes!

@RustyBear agree with you!

I wasn't going to watch this after the same writer made such a mess of Ordeal by Innocence but I was pleasantly surprised how much I watched of it. Thought I'd switch off in minutes. DH refuses to give it a chance.

I liked it in a non-Agatha Christie/Poirot purist but I wish the BBC would commission something original rather than rehashing something which doesn't need a 'new' take on it.

I didn't find it shoe-horned. McDonald led a National Government dominated by Conservatives, which was implementing protectionist policies. The British Union of Fascists had been founded the year before the episode is set in

It was shoe- horned in as nothing remotrly resembling this is in the book.

The other thing that seems very odd is that (according to Wikipedia, anyway) John Malkovich is fluent in French in RL. So what's with the bizarre accent? I get that he doesn't want to sound like Suchet but I'm sure he could find an acceptable middle way.

Why do they keep on trying to put made-up backstories for Poirot in adaptations? Part of the point of Poirot is that he was famous and celebrated in his home country, and then again in the UK, which is why he’s nettled when anyone hasn’t heard of him.

Rewriting Poirot as a charlatan and cheap entertainer who’s a joke at Scotland Yard just ruins the character.

Malkovitch is excellent, but not the Poirot of the books.

Sarah Phelps doesn't seem to understand that the attraction of AC books is their escapism and old English charm.

Having said that, it's a better effort than her appalling adaptation of Ordeal by Innocence.

ABC Murders has got such a great plot - I’ll be gutted if they don’t keep it. I love the darkness of the original Ordeal by Innocence plot and was incandescent that it was simply discarded for last year’s adaptation.

Having said that, it's a better effort than her appalling adaptation of Ordeal by Innocence

I think it's worse. Mrs Maybury and Lily are minor characters (although Lily has an important role later) and it's dreadful what they have done to them.

Betty was flighty and a flirt but she wasn't half as horrible as they made her and she definitely did not get a pair of stockings that way nor did she steal her sister's boyfriend. Megan is very unlike her sister but she wasn't an overweight frump.

It was shoe- horned in as nothing remotrly resembling this is in the book.

I was responding to Davros’s post which suggested that there were anachronistic references to “modern attitudes to immigration”.

I quite liked it, but I am not a fan of Agatha Christie or Poirot. I read a few of the books when I was younger and while I think she was a good writer they aren't my cup of tea. I expected Rupert Grint to be woeful but so far he is watchable. Will definitely tune in for the next one.

I didn't find it shoe-horned. McDonald led a National Government dominated by Conservatives, which was implementing protectionist policies. The British Union of Fascists had been founded the year before the episode is set in.

Protectionism had nothing to do with immigration. It was about trade.

I stopped watching after about ten minutes, so I don't know what was said or implied about immigration. But it would indeed be hugely anachronistic to have modern attitudes to immigration in anything set in the 1939s, since there wasn't anything remotely like the present day levels of immigration to have attitudes about.

(In the short time I was watching, the only thing I recognised was the name of the character who was the first victim. I wouldn't have minded watching to see Rupert Grint's performance, but couldn't put up with the rest of it.)

Thought it was slow, probably in an attempt to drag 3 episodes out of what could easily be fitted into two. A tad depressing too, and just fairly unengaging. What happened to lush, memorable Xmas TV?

ABC Murders has got such a great plot

As a pp said, Christie was all about the puzzle, and imo this was one of the best.

I'm thinking that Inspector Chrome is the baddie - maybe Cust is his puppet. Do we know Chrome's first and second initials ?? Is he ABC??!

I don't like what they've done with Betty's sister either. In the book she was a smart, intelligent young woman who lived away from home and had a good job. They've just turned her into a sad sack in this.

I've never read the Harry book or watched David .suchet as Poirot and I'm enjoying this.

I'm thinking that Inspector Chrome is the baddie - maybe Cust is his puppet. Do we know Chrome's first and second initials ?? Is he ABC??!
Who knows? Anything can happen in this version.

I don't like what they've done with Betty's sister either. In the book she was a smart, intelligent young woman who lived away from home and had a good job. They've just turned her into a sad sack in this

They have been horrible to all the female characters so far.

They haven't given Mrs Asher any of her backstory (surviving and leaving a brutal , drunken husband). They have omitted her lovely niece Mary (Although I assume she must make an appearance)

They are hinting that Thora Grey is after Carmichael (the delay in phoning the doctor)
Betty has become a vicious, amoral, grabby little tart.
Lily Maybury has become a prostitute pimped out by her mother.

I liked it, but I’ve never read the story.

Get on with it ! Talk about slow, could have been two episodes not three and a few lightbulbs wouldn't have gone amiss it was too dark to see what was happening.The camera was lovingly showing every detail of the period settings and costumes and then the script writer ruined the whole thing by using ghastly 21st century idioms - someone said"vinegar tits" FGS .Won't be watching again .

But it would indeed be hugely anachronistic to have modern attitudes to immigration in anything set in the 1939s, since there wasn't anything remotely like the present day levels of immigration to have attitudes about

Really? i'd check your history on that if i were you! between 1851 and 1930 foreign born population rose from a few 10s of 1000s to almost a million living in the UK - the 1930s saw peoples from across the world settling in the UK...... and in a recession, they were stealing our jobs!!!

We also weren't very welcoming to the jews fleeing europe in the 30s either, admitting 70k refusing 500k.

You shouldn't try and air brush history, so given the adaptation of the original book, i can see why they had to include this.

Kept watching hoping it would get better but couldn’t get past John Malkovichs appalling accent - it was the same one he used in Johnny English when he played a comic villain.

You shouldn't try and air brush history, so given the adaptation of the original book, i can see why they had to include this

None of the fascist/anti- immigration stuff is in the book. If any "airbrushing of history" happened it was by Christie herself but as she wrote the book and as she wasn't writing realistic , contemporary fiction it is entirely up to her what she chose to omit. There is no justification for adding it now.

Just watching this now and wishing I hadn't bothered.

Come on BBC, why do you have to try and make Agatha Christie so dark and unremittingly grim. The attraction and longevity of her stories are the balance between the world of privilege and charm she creates for her characters and the darkness of the crimes committed within.
Just wrong on so many levels. See Ken Branagh's recent Murder on the Orient Express as a 'how-to' guide for next year.