Poirot Season 13 - The Labours of Hercules Preview

©ITV/Patrick Redmond - Eleanor Tomlinson as Alice Cunningham

David Suchet's penultimate episode as Poirot comes to the US on Monday 18th August 
On Monday 18th August, Poirot: The Labours of Hercules will be available to watch in America on AcornTV. The penultimate episode of the long-running series sees Hercule Poirot in a different light: the great detective is depressed. After failing to save a young woman's life, he goes to the Swiss Alps to cure himself, but finds the killer amongst the hotel guests. Orla Brady stars as Countess Vera Rossakoff, Poirot's old flame, who was previously played by Kika Markham in The Double Clue. The films was adapted from a collection of short stories by Guy Andrews, produced by David Boulter and directed by Andy Wilson.

ITV Plot description: 

Desperate to catch infamous art thief Marrascaud, the Metropolitan Police build what they imagine is a perfect trap. The Le Mesurier family is to announce the society debut of their beautiful daughter Lucinda (Lorna Nickson Brown), who will be wearing an exceptionally expensive diamond necklace. On display will be ‘Hercules Vanquishing the Hydra’, a priceless work by Marrascaud’s favourite artist Van Druys. Last but not least, the great Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) will be in attendance. 

How can Marrascaud resist?

 

The results are catastrophic. Marrascaud pinches the painting and the jewels from beneath Poirot’s nose, leaving behind the butchered body of Lucinda. Poirot is devastated and falls into a heavy depression.

 

Dr Burton (Tom Chadbon) does all he can to revive the detective’s spirits, but it is not until a lonely chauffeur begs the detective to find his missing true love, the maid of a famous Russian dancer, that Poirot feels he can return to his work.

 

The quest for Nita takes Poirot to the Swiss Alps, where fate plays a hand: against all odds, Poirot has stumbled upon Hotel Olympos, now thought to be Marrascaud’s hideout.

 

As an avalanche cuts off access to the hotel, Poirot finds himself in a game of cat-and-mouse with a villain he fears and despises. What is the secret of bedridden dancer Katrina Samoushenka (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) and her missing maid? What are the true intentions of her Freudian therapist Dr Lutz (Simon Callow)? Why is Member of Parliament Harold Waring (Rupert Evans), dogged by salacious Fleet Street rumour, in hiding in Switzerland? Will Miss Annabel Rice (Sandy McDade) and her daughter Elsie Clayton (Morven Chrsitie) escape the wrath of Elsie’s abusive husband Philip? Is effusive Italian hotel owner Francesco (Nigel Lindsay) to be trusted? Who is the enigmatic parlour-game enthusiast Schwartz (Tom Wlaschiha)?

Just when it seems like the situation couldn’t be more baffling, or more dangerous, there is another arrival at the hotel: none other than the jewel thief Countess Vera Rossakoff (Orla Brady), whom Poirot has not encountered for over twenty years. This vivacious Russian émigré is the only woman to have stirred his heart – could she really be a killer? And what of her prodigious daughter, criminologist Alice Cunningham (Eleanor Tomlinson), and her ghastly bulldog Binky?

Any one of these people could be Marrascaud – but is the disoriented Poirot in a fit state to tell psychology from stagecraft, passions from posture, fact from fiction – before his nemesis kills again?

 

©ITV/Patrick Redmond - Lorna Nickson Brown as Lucinda Le Mesurier

Cast list:

 

Hercule Poirot - David Suchet  

Sir Anthony Morgan - Patrick Ryecart

Harold Waring - Rupert Evans

Lucinda Le Mesurier - Lorna Nickson Brown

Chief Inspector - Stephen Frost

Dr Lutz - Simon Callow

Elsie Clayton - Morven Chrsitie

Schwartz - Tom Wlaschiha

Inspector Lementeuil - Nicholas McGaughey

Countess Vera Rossakoff - Orla Brady

Alice Cunningham - Eleanor Tomlinson

Dr Burton - Tom Chadbon

Ted Williams - Tom Austen

Katrina Samoushenka - Fiona O’Shaughnessy

Miss Annabel Rice - Sandy McDade

Francesco - Nigel Lindsay

Gustave - Richard Katz

Policewoman - Isobel Middleton