Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

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Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide Sir Roderick also contacts Poirot seeking help. He has lost letters written during the Second World War by a third party, which would now cause embarrassment should they be made public. Poirot’s attention attaches itself to Sir Roderick’s personal assistant, Sonia, who has apparently been passing secrets to a representative of the Herzogovinian [sic] Embassy at Kew Gardens. This is all a red herring, however: Poirot hints to Sonia that he knows of her espionage activities, and she abandons them in order to marry Sir Roderick instead at the end of the novel. Mrs. Oliver now provides Poirot with another key clue: she has heard while at Borodene Mansions that a woman, Louise Charpentier, has committed suicide by throwing herself out of the window of Flat 76. This, Poirot infers, must be the murder that Norma believed herself to have committed. Investigating the dead woman, he discovers that her real name was Louise Carpenter: also the name of a woman with whom Andrew Restarick had been in love many years earlier. Mrs. Oliver later even provides Poirot with the draft of a letter from Louise to Andrew in which she attempted to make contact once more: an item that had providentially come into her possession early in the novel when it fell from a drawer. Amongst other clues on which Poirot focuses, there are several that are only explained at the end of the book. Mary Restarick wears a wig, to which the reader’s attention is repeatedly drawn by the fact that Mrs. Oliver’s hairpieces are often mentioned as a plot device: indeed, Mrs. Oliver alters her hair in order to be in disguise when she sees Norma and David in the café. Also, Poirot notices that there is a pair of portraits of Andrew Restarick and of his first wife (Norma’s mother) in their home; why is Mary Restarick apparently content to have a picture of her predecessor on display, and why does Andrew later split the set in order to have his own portrait in his office? Stillingfleet contacts Poirot to say that Norma has walked out on him unexpectedly. She has seen a message in the personal column of a newspaper calling her to the flat, where she is discovered by Frances Cary standing over the dead body of David Baker with a knife, the murder weapon, in her hand. Norma immediately claims responsibility for the murder to a neighbour, Miss Jacobs. Norma has, however, been subjected to a cocktail of drugs intended to disorient her and make her susceptible to the suggestion that she is a murderer. In the denouement Poirot reveals that the man posing as Andrew Restarick is an impostor, Robert Orwell, who has taken his place after the real Restarick died in Africa. Orwell has persuaded David Baker to paint a fake painting in style with the original one, which establishes to anyone who questions it that the new ’Restarick’ had looked much the same fifteen years earlier when the pair was painted. Mary Restarick, meanwhile, has been leading a double life, as both Mary and as Frances Cary, whom she could become by changing wigs. Their imposture, however, could be revealed by two people: by David Baker, who had taken to blackmailing Orwell over the picture; and Louise Carpenter, who knew Restarick too well to be fooled by Orwell. The murder plot involved killing both of them, and convincing Norma that she was the killer. Norma had never in reality been in Louise’s flat: they simply switched the 7 and the 6 on the door of her own flat. All along the ’third girl’ in the flat on whom attention should have been focused has been, not Norma, but Frances. At the end of the novel, Stillingfleet, who has staunchly defended Norma’s innocence even when it was most in question, is rewarded by her agreeing to marry him. As Mrs. Oliver realises, Poirot has planned this happy ending all along. 162
Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide Appointment with Death Season 11 Episode Number: 66 Season Episode: 4 Originally aired: Friday December 25, 2009 Writer: Agatha Christie, Guy Andrews Director: Ashley Pearce Show Stars: David Suchet (Hercule Poirot) Guest Stars: Zoe Boyle (Ginevra Boynton), Emma Cunniffe (Carol Boynton), Elizabeth McGovern (Dame Celia Westholme), John Hannah (Dr. Gerard), Cheryl Campbell (Lady Boynton), Tom Riley (Raymond Boynton), Mark Gatiss (Leonard Boynton), Christina Cole (Dr. Sarah King), Angela Pleasence (Nanny), Christian McKay (Jefferson Cope), Paul Freeman (Colonel Carbury), Beth Goddard (Sister Agnieszka), Tim Curry Lord (Boynton), Jawad Elalami (Labourer), Abdelkader Aizoun (Concierge) Summary: On holiday in Jerusalem in 1937, Poirot hears about an archaeological expedition to Syria led by the eccentric Lord Boynton and his son Leonard, who believe they are on the track of the head of St John the Baptist. Drawn to visit the dig, Poirot meets Boynton’s dominating, fabulously rich, American-born second wife. However, events are overtaken by the discovery of Lady Boynton’s dead body and revelations about her fortune. Poirot is given the task of finding the killer. As ever, he has no shortage of suspects. The first part of the novel (a little over a third) is an thriller as the family and the victim are introduced,through the perspective of Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, who discuss the behavior of the family. Mrs. Boynton is sadistic and domineering, which she may have inculcated from her original profession: prison warden. Sarah is attracted to Raymond Boynton, while Jefferson Cope admits to wanting to take Nadine Boynton away from her husband, Lennox Boynton, and the influence of her mother-in-law. Having been thwarted in her desire to free the young Boyntons, Sarah confronts Mrs. Boynton whose apparent reply is a strange threat: ”I’ve never forgotten anything — not an action, not a name, not a face.” When the party reaches Petra, Mrs. Boynton uncharacteristically sends her family away from her for a period. Later, she is found dead with a needle puncture in her wrist. Poirot claims that he can solve the mystery within twenty-four hours simply by interviewing the suspects. During these interviews he establishes a timeline that seems impossible: Sarah King places the time of death considerably before the times at which various of the family members claim last to have seen the victim alive. Attention is focused on a hypodermic syringe that has seemingly been stolen from Dr. Gerard’s tent and later replaced. The poison administered to the victim is believed to be digitoxin something that she already took medicinally. 163
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Contents Season 1 1 1 The Adventure
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Page 121: Season Seven
Page 135: Season Nine
Page 159: Season Eleven
Page 185: Season Thirteen
Page 216: Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode
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Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

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