Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
Lord Edgware Dies
Season 7
Episode Number: 52
Season Episode: 2
Originally aired: Saturday February 19, 2000
Writer:
Agatha Christie, Anthony Horowitz
Director: Brian Farnham
Show Stars: Hugh Fraser (Captain Arthur Hastings), Philip Jackson (Chief Inspector
James Japp), Pauline Moran (Miss Felicity Lemon), David Suchet
(Hercule Poirot)
Guest Stars: Helen Grace (Jane Wilkinson), John Castle (Lord Edgware), Fiona Allen
(Carlotta Adams), Dominic Guard (Bryan Martin), Deborah Cornelius
(Penny Driver), Hannah Yelland (Geraldine Marsh), Tim Steed (Ronald
Marsh), Jonathan Aris (Receptionist), Tom Beard (Duke of Merton),
Mark Brignal (Addison), Virginia Denham (Alice), Rory Firth (Pageboy),
Iain Fraser (Donald Ross), Christopher Guard (Alton), Janet Hargreaves
(Lady Corner), John Hart Dyke (Thompson), Aliza James (Lucie
Adams), Nicola Michaels (Airport Clerk), Lesley Nightingale (Miss Carroll),
John Quentin (Sir Montagu Corner), Fenella Woolgar (Ellis)
Summary: Jane Wilkinson, a famous actress whose married name is Lady Edgeware,
was in a hurry to trade in her moderately rich husband for an
even richer model, so when Lord Edgeware is killed, there is an obvious
suspect. However, Edgeware had just agreed to a divorce - with Poirot
acting on his wife’s behalf. Under suspicion, Jane seeks Poirot’s help
again, having previously wanted his help in ridding her of the same
unwanted husband. So was Lady Edgeware the killer, or has she been
framed? Her husband also had an unhappy daughter and a nephew
who badly needed money. Poirot soon finds that nothing is at all as
it seems in the remarkable world where the theatre collides with high
society.
Jane Wilkinson, an actress, is suspected of murdering her husband, the fourth Baron Edgware,
so that she can marry the Duke of Merton. The plot begins with Jane asking Poirot to
convince her husband to agree to a divorce. When Poirot reluctantly does so, Edgware says that
he has already agreed to a divorce and written a letter to Jane informing her of the fact. When
Poirot reports this to Jane, she denies ever having received such a letter. Lord Edgware is a rude
and unsympathetic character, and lots of people have a motive for removing him.
On the night of the murder, Wilkinson supposedly goes to the Edgware house, announces
herself to the butler, and goes into her husband’s study. The next day, Lord Edgware is found
murdered and Chief Inspector Japp tells Poirot all about it. Numerous friends and acquaintances
of Jane have described her as amoral, someone who only thinks of herself and would certainly
commit a crime if it would help her get what she wants, without a care for others. But in that
morning’s newspaper, they discover an article about a dinner party that was held the previous
evening where Jane Wilkinson was reportedly a guest.
At the party, there were thirteen guests at the dinner table. One guest mentioned that thirteen
people at table means bad luck for the first guest to rise from the table (hence the alternative
title of the book Thirteen At Dinner) and Jane Wilkinson was the first to rise. Among the guests
is an actor named Donald Ross, who spent a lot of the evening speaking with Jane. So the police
are, at first, baffled with the case, as is Poirot.
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