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Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

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<strong>Agatha</strong> Christie’s <strong>Poirot</strong> <strong>Episode</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />

The Big Four<br />

Season 13<br />

<strong>Episode</strong> Number: 72<br />

Season <strong>Episode</strong>: 2<br />

Originally aired: Wednesday October 23, 2013<br />

Writer:<br />

Mark Gatiss, Ian Hallard<br />

Director: Peter Lydon<br />

Show Stars: David Suchet (Hercule <strong>Poirot</strong>)<br />

Recurring Role: David Yelland (George)<br />

Guest Stars: Hugh Fraser (Captain Hastings), Philip Jackson (Assistant Commissioner<br />

Japp), Pauline Moran (Miss Lemon), Patricia Hodge (Madame<br />

Olivier), Michael Culkin (Savaranoff), Sarah Parish (Flossie Monro),<br />

Teresa Banham (Diana Paynter), James Carroll Jordan (Abe Ryland),<br />

Tom Brooke (Tysoe), Barbara Kirby (Mrs Andrews), Nicholas Burns<br />

(Inspector Meadows), Simon Lowe (Dr Quentin), Nicholas Day (Ingles),<br />

Steven Pacey (Stephen Paynter), Jack Farthing (Gerald Paynter),<br />

Alex Palmer (Robert Grant), Lou Broadbent (Mabel), Peter Symonds<br />

(Jonathan Whalley)<br />

Summary: As the threat of world war looms large, <strong>Poirot</strong> seeks the help of friends<br />

both old and new when he is pitted against a dangerous group of dissidents<br />

responsible for a series of violent murders.<br />

Captain Hastings visits <strong>Poirot</strong> and finds that <strong>Poirot</strong> is<br />

leaving for South America. He has been offered a huge<br />

amount of money by the American ’soap king’ millionaire<br />

Abe Ryland. <strong>Poirot</strong> inquires if Hastings has ever<br />

heard the phrase the Big Four. Hastings responds uncooperatively.<br />

At the eleventh hour an unexpected visitor<br />

called Mayerling comes in saying only ”M. Hercule<br />

<strong>Poirot</strong>, 14 Farraway Street.” When he is given a piece of<br />

paper by a doctor he writes the number 4 many times.<br />

When Hastings mentions the Big Four, the man begins<br />

speaking, he tells them that number 1 is a Chinese political<br />

mastermind named Li Chang Yen. He represents the<br />

brains of the Big Four. Number 2 is usually not named<br />

but represented by a ’$’ or two stripes and a star so he is<br />

probably American and he represents wealth. Number 3<br />

is a Frenchwoman and Number 4 is the destroyer.<br />

After an aborted start on <strong>Poirot</strong>’s trip to South America,<br />

they return to the flat to find the man dead. The<br />

doctor is summoned and says that the man died of asphyxiation<br />

and has been dead about two hours, he cannot<br />

be closer because the windows were open. A man<br />

from an asylum visits them and tells them that the man<br />

had escaped from his asylum. Japp soon enters and recognizes<br />

the man to be Mayerling, a prominent figure in the Secret Service. <strong>Poirot</strong> asks Hastings if<br />

he opened the windows to which Hastings replies in the negative. <strong>Poirot</strong> examines the man and<br />

announces that Mayerling was gagged and poisoned using cyanide. The hands of the lounge clock<br />

were turned to 4 o’clock and <strong>Poirot</strong> realizes that the murderer was the man from the asylum.<br />

<strong>Poirot</strong> and Hastings pay a visit to John Ingles, a wealthy man, and ask him about Li Chang<br />

Yen and the Big Four. He has heard of both, the former he heard of recently in a note from<br />

183

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