Saturday 26 July 2014

Poirot Season 13 - The Big Four Preview

©ITV - from left: Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon, Philip Jackson as Assistant Commissioner Japp, David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Hugh Fraser as Captain Hastings
The first episode of the final season of Poirot will be broadcast in the US on Monday 28th July. 

Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson and Pauline Moran are reunited with David Suchet for the final season of Poirot. The Big Four was broadcast in the UK on 23rd October 2013, but fans of Poirot in the US have had to wait a little longer to say "Adieu" to the famous Belgian detective. The wait is finally over, as on Monday, they can watch the season premiere. 
The thirteenth and final season starts with a bang, as Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser), Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran) and Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) are reunited after many years apart for the funeral of their much loved friend Hercule Poirot. It has been twelve years Poirot has seen his old friends, as they last appeared alongside him in the 2002 episode Evil Under the Sun. 
The episode was adapted by Mark Gatiss and Ian Hallard, produced by David Boulter and directed by Peter Lyndon. 

Monday 21 July 2014

Book of the Month July 2014: Dead Man's Folly - Plot & Characters

(c) Harpercollins - the new cover for the book
For July, the chosen Book of the Month for the Agatha Christie Book club at the website is one of my favourite novels. Dead Man's Folly was first published in October 1956 and features the recurring characters of Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver. The setting is Nasse House, in the fictional Devonshire town of Nasscombe. Nasse House and its surroundings were inspired by Agatha Christie's own holiday home Greenway House. Recently, for the final series of Agatha Christie's Poirot, David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker filmed an adaption of Dead Man's Folly at Greenway. It was the last Poirot story to be filmed, but not the last to be broadcast.

Plot 

The great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is called upon by his old friend, the crime novelist Ariandne Oliver, to investigate the goings on at Nasse House. Mrs Oliver is helping the owner of the house Sir George Stubbs to run a murder hunt as part of the annual summer fete's festivities. However, Mrs Oliver believes there is something wrong at Nasse, and she feels sure someone will die. Hercule Poirot is called in to hand out the prizes for the murder hunt, much to his dislike, and so he can get to know the potential suspects. There he meets Sir George and his subnormal wife Hattie and Amy Foliatt, the previous owner of Nasse House. But as the celebrations begin, Hattie disappears and the fake body in the murder hunt, played by a young girl guide, turns in to a real body and is found in the boathouse. Hercule Poirot must solve the mystery of Nasse and help the police as they struggle to find the missing Hattie Stubbs.

Saturday 12 July 2014

Greenway House - September 2013

Greenway House was the much loved holiday home of Agatha Christie, and a location that inspired her novel Dead Man's Folly. 

(c) Agatha Christie Web - Greenway House 
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