Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Season 3
Episode Number: 23
Season Episode: 1
Originally aired: Sunday January 6, 1991
Writer:
Agatha Christie, Andrew Marshall
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: Peter Birch (Nicholai), ”Baby” John Burgess (Harrison), Trevor Darby
(Trumper), Margery Mason (Amelia Barrowby), Dorcas Morgan (Lucy),
Ralph Nossek (Dr Sims), Stephen Petcher (photographer), Philip
Praeger (policeman), John Rogan (pathologist), Catherine Russell (Katrina
Reiger), Anne Stallybrass (Mary Delafontaine), Tim Wylton (Henry
Delafontaine)
Summary: Poirot becomes the centre of attention at the Chelsea Flower Show,
where a new rose named after him is on display. There, an old lady
gives him a packet of seeds. On his return home, he receives a letter
from Miss Barrowby, who feels threatened, and he realizes he
has just met her at the Flower Show. He decides to call on her. The
same evening, Miss Barrowby dies, poisoned by strychnine, and when
Poirot calls at her house the next morning he meets the penniless
Delafontaines, Miss Barrowby’s only living relations, who were living
with her, and Katrina Reiger, Miss Barrowby’s young Russian nursecompanion.
A bottle of the poison is found in Katrina’s effects, and she
disappears. Poirot discovers that Miss Barrowby has left her all her
property, and this seems to remove suspicion from the Delafontaines.
Or does it? Meanwhile, Hastings is suffering from hay fever. . . or is he?
Poirot receives a strange letter for assistance from an elderly woman, Miss Amelia Barrowby,
who lives at Rosebank in Charman’s Green. She is extremely vague in defining exactly what the
problem is but states several times that discretion is paramount and that family is involved. The
letter intrigues Poirot who has Miss Lemon draft a reply saying that he is at the lady’s service.
Five days later Miss Lemon spots an announcement in the ”personal column” of The Morning
Post about the death of Miss Barrowby. Poirot sends a letter to Rosebank saying that he
will call on Miss Barrowby but this is to provoke a response from the next of kin and he duly
receives a reply from Mary Delafontaine, the lady’s niece, saying that his services are no longer
required. Nevertheless, he goes to the house and admires the well-maintained garden with its
spring flowers and edging of shells. Let into the house by a maid, the first person he meets is a
young Russian girl called Katrina Reiger who speaks cryptically of the money that by rights is
hers. She is interrupted by Mrs Delafontaine and her husband who dismisses Katrina and they
meet Poirot. They seem shocked to find that he is a detective.
Poirot interviews the local police inspector who tells him that they now know that Miss Barrowby
died from a dose of strychnine but the problem is that the victim and her two family
members all ate the same meal. The Delafontaines are suspected as they will inherit a large sum
of money, which they very much need, but it was Katrina who gave her employer her medicinal
powders and it is possible the strychnine was in those. However, Katrina does not appear to have
benefitted in any way from Miss Barrowby’s death, and would, in fact, have been out of a job.
The next day, however, brings the news that Miss Barrowby left most of her money to Katrina,
thereby providing a motive and she has duly been detained. A packet of strychnine powders
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