There is something about Agatha Christie’s masterful Belgium detective that resonates with the British public. The 4.9million people who tuned in on Sunday night to watch David Suchet kickoff his twelfth season as the diminutive Hercule Poirot are testament to that. In a society that is transfixed by the yearlong screamfests that are reality-singing competitions, it is a comforting sign to see that there still exists a hunger for the classic British detective whodunit.
The Three Act Tragedy, continues the trend established in the last two series. Gone are the opening credits and instantly recognisable theme tune, to be replaced by a understated credit reel that works well to distance itself from the rehashed 3pm detective shows such as Murder She Wrote, towards a more serious primetime drama.
We first meet our eccentric protagonist early on in the piece at the residence the famous actor and his longtime friend Sir Charles Cartwright. The pace of the episode is rapid as within the first 15 minutes we are already encounter the body of the first victim, the inoffensive Reverend Babbington. The time scale jumps forward to a month later, to the Yorkshire mansion of the eminent doctor and friend of Cartwright, Sir Bartholomew Strange. The body count begins to pile up as host is poisoned in the same fashion as the Reverend, thus springing those legendary Belgian little grey cells into action.
It was a bold move to convert Poirot’s exploits into feature length episodes, and one that requires an adaptation in directorial styles to keep the audience captivated. The Three Act attempts this successfully by various techniques such as speeding up time scales and a wonderfully theatrical use of spotlight lighting of the characters during important close up moments. This is best seen at the beginning of the episode where we are introduced to the rest of the players in the mystery via individual close up shots. This is a wonderfully imaginative way introducing the characters in a classic dinner party whodunit that is essentially cluedo-esque.
What made the series such a success throughout the 90s was the comical bumblings of Poirot’s trusty support acts of Captain Hastings, Miss. Lemon and Chief Inspector Japp. Although these characters are not as common in the novels, their mainstay in the early seasons offered more lighthearted relief to the onscreen adaption. The absence of these characters means that to still contain the morbid playfulness of Christie’s novels there needs to exist a level of subtly. The decision to remold the franchise is a signal of intent that the last episodes of Poirot are changing with the times.
Verdict
Although this is by no means one of Christie’s greatest novels, the modern filming techniques combined with its theatre mirrored shooting techniques does more than enough to stimulate our little grey cells, making the latest Poirot adaptations a wonderful success and fully justifying ITV’s decision to back the filming of the final few unmade Poirot cases.
