<strong>Agatha</strong> Christie’s <strong>Poirot</strong> <strong>Episode</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> its dull buckled shoes. He is skeptical of the theory that Mrs. Chapman has killed Mabelle and fled. Sure enough, once the dental records are produced by Morley’s successor at the surgery, it is discovered that the corpse is Mrs. Chapman’s. The hunt for Mabelle continues. <strong>Poirot</strong> is now drawn into the life of the Blunt family. An attempt is made on Alistair Blunt’s life at which Raikes is a bystander. <strong>Poirot</strong> is invited down to Blunt’s house, where he is persuaded to undertake a search for Mabelle. While he is there, a second attempt is made on Blunt’s life, but it is seemingly thwarted by Raikes. The pistol used in the attack is found in the hand of none other than Frank Carter, who has taken a job as gardener at the house under a false identity. When a maid at the surgery admits to having seen Carter on the stairs going up to Morley’s office, it seems that Carter is likely to be tried and convicted of both the murder and the attempted murder. The fact that the gun with which he was captured was the twin of the murder weapon only makes things worse for him. To be contined. . . 82
<strong>Agatha</strong> Christie’s <strong>Poirot</strong> <strong>Episode</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (2) Season 4 <strong>Episode</strong> Number: 38 Season <strong>Episode</strong>: 6 Originally aired: Sunday January 19, 1992 Writer: Clive Exton, <strong>Agatha</strong> Christie Director: Ross Devenish Show Stars: Philip Jackson (Chief Inspector James Japp), David Suchet (Hercule <strong>Poirot</strong>) Guest Stars: Keith Woodhams (Desk Clerk), John Warner (Second Coroner), Sara Stewart (Jane Olivera), Chris Sicer (Claudio), John Peters (II) (Leatheran), Alan Penn (Antonio), Guy Oliver-Watts (Benedick), Kevork Malikyan (Amberiotis), Eileen Maciejewska (Manageress), Rosalind Knight (Georgina Morley), Dawn Keeler (Mrs Pinner), Trilby James (Agnes Fletcher), Helen Horton (Julia Olivera), Laurence Harrington (Henry Morley), Julie Smith (Second girl playing hopscotch), Emma Grey (First girl playing hopscotch), Joe Greco (Alfred Biggs), Carolyn Colquhoun (Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale), Stephen Bird (Page-boy), Bruce Alexander (Albert Chapman), Karen Gledhill (Gladys Neville), Jean Ainslie (Alison Hendry), Christopher Eccleston (Frank Carter), Cassandra Holliday (Receptionist), Oliver Bradshaw (Hendry), John Carlin (Dr Bennett), Ben Bazell (Sergeant Beddoes), Nigel Bellairs (Leatheran), Joanna Phillips-Lane (Gerda Grant/Helen Montressor), Peter Blythe (Alistair Blunt), George Waring (First Coroner), David Bowles (Sergeant Evans) Summary: Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale is found dead in a flat occupied by a Mrs Chapman. <strong>Poirot</strong> visits Exsham Manor, where Alistair Blunt lives - and while there, a shot is fired at him. <strong>Poirot</strong> works on the theory that the death of Dr Morley is in some way connected with the deaths of Mabelle Sainsbury-Seale and another of Morley’s patients. <strong>Poirot</strong> realises that by allowing Carter to persist in his lies he can ensure that the real killer goes free, and wrestles with his conscience. Eventually he presses Carter to admit the truth: that when he entered Morley’s office the dentist was already dead. It is the final element in the puzzle. <strong>Poirot</strong> visits Alistair Blunt and explains the murders. The real Mabelle Sainsbury Seale had known him and his first wife, Gerda, whom he had never divorced, in India; his money came from his now deceased second wife, and he would be disgraced if caught in bigamy. Running into Blunt in the street, she had recognised and spoken to him in front of his niece, but had not realised whom he had become. By chance she had mentioned this chance encounter to the blackmailer, Amberiotis, who made the connection between the name ’Blunt’ and the wealthy banker. He began to blackmail Blunt. Gerda, posing under several aliases including that of Mrs. Albert Chapman, invited Mabelle to visit her, killed her, and took her identity, but had to buy new shoes because Mabelle’s did not fit her. This is why the corpse’s buckles were dull, while the buckle of the woman whom <strong>Poirot</strong> met going into Morley’s surgery were shiny: the fake Mabelle had newer shoes than the real one, who was by that time decomposing in the chest. The woman in the trunk could hardly have worn through a new pair of shoes in a single day. Ironically, the face of the corpse had been disfigured not because it wasn’t Mabelle, but because it was. Alistair Blunt had attended his appointment, shot Morley and stashed his body in the side office with his wife’s help. Having appeared to leave the surgery, he returned and changed the dental records of Mrs. Albert Chapman and Mabelle in order to ensure that the corpse would be 83