The ABC Murders

[Carlyrichards]

Anyone watching? I like Rupert Grint in this.

I don't think it was as there appeared to be no sexual gratification from it.

Ask the audience.

After hating the first two episodes, I loved the third.

Poirot's back story really drew me in. It annoyed dh, who exclaimed "Poirot's a rational man!"

Mes enfants indeed.

I'd watch JM as Poirot again. However, better female characters please.

Loved the train tracks scene.

It wasn’t AC, but as a stand-alone drama I really warmed to it.

I’d watch JM again as that character. He isn’t Poirot, but he’s a promising character nonetheless.

Watching it with all the lights off seemed to be the only way to actually see what was happening though.

Were there two good diggers or did the Secretary just change her hair to a bob. Was she also the one in the bath?

Yes I got confused about that too. I think her hair changed from curly to straight.

Her make up was dreadful. Completely the wrong foundation.

It was confusing.

Agree, there was not really anything to explain about the massive image overhaul of Thora, or was it just really the curly haired 'naice' look was to hook Sir C? And the Cyd Cersise was more what the younger brother liked??

Yes, the reveal on the Suchet version has much more impact.

This^ I did think it picked up a bit in episode two, but the third episode seemed really flabby and rushed. I'm not surprised so many of you were confused.

In the Suchet version everyone is convinced Cust is their man, even Cust himself. Poirot has to really fight to reveal the true criminal mastermind. In this version it was just shoved on at the end as an afterthought.

The Malkovich character with the priest backstory was good, but it wasn't Poirot. I totally agree with PPs, why not just do a new story?

JM may be fluent in French, (his wife is French isn't she) but his accent is awful.

@MsChookandtheelvesofFahFah I didn’t recognise the lady on the stretcher either (and I watched all the episodes too).

Thoroughly confused by the curly haired secretary and bob haired woman too.

I liked the third episode best though, mostly because they turned the lights on a bit.

I really enjoyed it. I know the book and have watched and enjoyed DS version but I took this as stand alone and thought it was really well done . I got used to JM and was convinced by him.

Agree with several PPs that final episode best.

Did they reveal how ABC/Carmichael knew about the refugees on the train in Andover who Mrs Ascher helped? I know the Poirot connection to each place was written in, but I'd hoped there might be something more to that part of Poirot's new life backstory.

I've loved it!

I was dreading the mess that I thought it was going to be - Malkovitch didn't even sound Belgian (whatever that sounds like ) but I really enjoyed it - it was MUCH darker than the Suchet Poirots (I love them, I might add), and I thought it was much more compelling.

Coincidentally, The David Suchet version of the same story was on at the same time, so I watched to compare. I much preferred the Malkovitch version. Suchet's version, while wonderful, was very much sanitised. (Also "Friend Hastings" gets on my t*ts!).

Malkovitch is excellent, but not the Poirot of the books

I thought this, too.

Suchet will always be the definitive Poirot for me* - but I enjoyed this in its own right.

*and Agatha Rutherford is Miss Marple, though Joan Hickson is very good - detested Julia McKenzie's very arch Miss M.

Thought the first episode was very slow but started enjoying it after that. Yes it was very different to a Suchet Poirot but a copycat version would have been pointless and tedious.
Anyway Malkovitch did a far better job than Kenneth Brannagh in that God awful version of murder on the orient express!

He's far better as an actor than Daniel Radcliffe, who's ok but nothing out of the ordinary as an adult actor, and Emma Watson, who is as wooden as an oak sideboard.

Agree with this - Rupert Grint is baby-faced, but he has a depth of talent that the other two don't.

(I also felt this regarding John Thaw and Kevin Whately. John Thaw was good, but not as outstanding as he was made out to be. Whately practically slipped under the radar, but was a better actor IMO)

She could even write an original Poirot (except Sophie Hannah has got there first).

And a very good job Ms Hannah has made of it, too.

Ask the audience.

Eh?

Did they reveal how ABC/Carmichael knew about the refugees on the train in Andover who Mrs Ascher helped?

That’s true. It’s an almighty coincidence. All those As and a connection.

"Coincidentally, The David Suchet version of the same story was on at the same time, so I watched to compare"

Where was it on. I'd like to see it. On catch up?

ITV3 Greyhound

Should be on the hub.

Did they reveal how ABC/Carmichael knew about the refugees on the train in Andover who Mrs Ascher helped?

I kept expecting them to reveal that Miss Grey was the baby, and that she’d told ABC/Franklin about this bit of her past.

OublietteBravo

Yes! When I was trying to work out the plot, I was going along the lines of Miss Grey being the baby and there being some as yet unseen link to Betty; and ABC being linked to the fascist group.

www.itv.com/hub/agatha-christies-poirot/L0830a0030

I couldn't see the point of changing the Poirot back story. I agree with the PP's DH - Poirot is the ultimate scientific, rational puzzle-solver. The new back story didn't fit.

Her adaptation of And Then There Were None is one of the best things I've ever seen on TV though. But I think all the others she's done since then have been totally over-egged.