Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Season 7
Episode Number: 51
Season Episode: 1
Originally aired: Sunday January 2, 2000
Writer:
Clive Exton, Agatha Christie
Director: Andrew Grieve
Show Stars: Philip Jackson (Chief Inspector James Japp), David Suchet (Hercule
Poirot)
Guest Stars: Oliver Ford Davies (Dr Sheppard), Selina Cadell (Caroline Sheppard),
Roger Frost (Parker the Butler), Malcolm Terris (Roger Ackroyd), Nigel
Cooke (Geoffrey Raymond), Daisy Beaumont (Ursula Bourne), Flora
Montgomery (Flora Ackroyd), Vivien Heilbron (Mrs Ackroyd), Gregor
Truter (Inspector Davis), Jamie Bamber (Ralph Paton), Charles Early
(P.C. Jones), Rosalind Bailey (Mrs Ferrars), Charles Simon (Hammond),
Elizabeth Kettle (Mrs Folliott), Graham Chinn (Landlord), Clive
Brunt (Petty Officer), Alice Hart (Mary), Philip Wrigley (Postman), Phil
Atkinson (Ted)
Summary: Poirot has retired to the sleepy English village of King’s Abbot to cultivate
his garden, but even here murder soon rears its head. Following
the apparent suicide of a local widow, rumours run wild to the effect
that she had murdered her first husband, that she was having an affair
with Roger Ackroyd (a rich business man who lives in the village)
and that she was being blackmailed. Poirot remains aloof from all this,
but when his neighbour Ackroyd too is killed he is drawn into the hunt
for a clever murderer. The suspects include Roger Ackroyd’s greedy
sister-in-law, his chauffeur, his secretary, and his adopted son, Ralph
- who quickly disappears from the scene. When he finds out who the
killer is, the whole experience is enough to persuade Poirot to pack up
and return to London.
The book is set in the fictional village of King’s Abbott in England. It is narrated by Dr. James
Sheppard, who becomes Poirot’s assistant (a role filled by Captain Hastings in several other Poirot
novels). The story begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow who is rumoured
to have murdered her husband. Her death is initially believed to be an accident until Roger
Ackroyd, a widower who had been expected to marry Mrs. Ferrars, reveals that she admitted
to killing her husband and then committed suicide. Shortly after this he is found murdered.
The suspects include Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd, Roger’s neurotic hypochondriac sister-in-law who has
accumulated personal debts through extravagant spending; her daughter Flora; Major Blunt,
a big-game hunter; Geoffrey Raymond, Ackroyd’s personal secretary; Ralph Paton, Ackroyd’s
stepson and another person with heavy debts; Parker, a snooping butler; and Ursula Bourne, a
parlourmaid with an uncertain history who resigned her post the afternoon of the murder.
The initial suspect is Ralph, who is engaged to Flora and stands to inherit his stepfather’s
fortune. Several critical pieces of evidence seem to point to Ralph. Poirot, who has just moved to
the town, begins to investigate at Flora’s behest.
The book ends with a then-unprecedented plot twist. Poirot exonerates all of the original
suspects. He then lays out a completely reasoned case that the murderer is in fact Dr. Sheppard,
who has not only been Poirot’s assistant, but the story’s narrator. Dr. Sheppard was Mrs. Ferrars’
blackmailer, and he murdered Ackroyd to stop him learning the truth from Mrs. Ferrars. In the
final chapter of Sheppard’s narrative (a sort of epilogue), Sheppard admits his guilt, noting certain
literary techniques he used to write the narrative truthfully without revealing his role in the crime
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