Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
Third Girl
Season 11
Episode Number: 65
Season Episode: 3
Originally aired: Sunday September 28, 2008
Writer:
Agatha Christie, Peter Flannery
Director: Dan Reed (II)
Show Stars: David Suchet (Hercule Poirot)
Recurring Role: David Yelland (George), Zoë Wanamaker (Ariadne Oliver)
Guest Stars: Matilda Sturridge (Frances Cary), Haydn Gwynne (Miss Battersby),
Peter Bowles (Sir Roderick Horsefield), James Wilby (Andrew Restarick),
Clemency Burton-Hill (Claudia Reece-Holland), Ysobel Gonzalez
(Nurse), Sean Kingsley (Policeman), Jemima Rooper (Norma Restarick),
Tom Mison (David Baker), Caroline O’Neill (Lavinia Seagram), Tim
Stern (Alf Renny), John Warnaby (Inspector Nelson), Simon Hill Bus
(Ticket Inspector), Tessa Bell-Briggs (Daphne), Jade Longley (Young
Norma)
Summary: Three single girls share a London flat. The first, Claudia Reece-
Holland, works as a secretary; the second, Frances Cary, is a Bohemian
model; the third, Norma Restarick, comes to Poirot for help
and promptly disappears believing she is a murderer. Luckily, crime
novelist Ariadne Oliver lives directly below the three girls, and assists
in Poirot’s investigations after the body of Norma’s former nanny is
found. Could this be the murder that Norma believes she has committed?
In order to establish whether the third girl is guilty, innocent or
insane, Poirot explores her family history and relationships and uncovers
startling secrets. Is he dealing with a girl who needs to be saved?
Or with a girl who should swing from the gallows?
Poirot’s acquaintance, the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, provides him with a number of key
clues in the novel, beginning with the identity of the girl, Norma Restarick, whom she had met at
a party. Mrs. Oliver and Poirot begin to investigate Norma, but soon find that she has apparently
gone missing. Mrs. Oliver meets the girls with whom she shares a flat at 67 Borodene Mansions:
Claudia Reece-Holland (who turns out to be secretary to Norma’s father) and Frances Cary, an
artsy girl with long, dark hair that falls across her face. Neither has seen Norma recently. Poirot
(visiting her paternal great uncle’s home in Long Basing) finds that her father and stepmother
also have no idea where she has gone. Poirot does meet David Baker, Norma’s boyfriend, in
the house, and sees that Norma’s stepmother, Mary, is highly annoyed to discover him there.
Poirot also meets Norma’s paternal great-uncle, Sir Roderick Horsfield, who is elderly and has
poor eyesight. Norma’s father, Andrew, has been staying with Sir Roderick since returning from
Africa, where he had made a vast fortune.
Mrs. Oliver provides a second essential clue when she happens across David and Norma in a
café. She telephones Poirot, who comes to meet Norma, while she herself tracks David to a dingy
artist’s studio, where Norma’s flatmate Frances is posing as a model. Leaving the studio Mrs.
Oliver is knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, Norma awakens to find herself in the safe keeping
of Stillingfleet, having apparently thrown herself under an oncoming car. In a red herring that
is easily spotted by those who recognise the doctor from an earlier meeting with Poirot, it seems
that Stillingfleet may have kidnapped Norma. In fact, Poirot has hidden her from danger, and
she is not seen again for much of the novel. Andrew Restarick employs Poirot to track her down,
and is insistent that the police are not to become involved.
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