Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
Season 5
Episode Number: 39
Season Episode: 1
Originally aired: Sunday January 17, 1993
Writer:
Clive Exton, Agatha Christie
Director: Peter Barber-Fleming
Show Stars: Hugh Fraser (Captain Arthur Hastings), Philip Jackson (Chief Inspector
James Japp), Pauline Moran (Miss Felicity Lemon), David Suchet
(Hercule Poirot)
Guest Stars: Paul Birchard (Rupert Bleibner), Simon Cowell-Parker (Nigel Harper),
Anna Cropper (Lady Willard), Olivier Pierre (Henry Schneider), Bill Bailey
(II) (Felix Bleibner), Peter Reeves (Sir John Willard), Rolf Saxon (Dr
Ames), Mozaffar Shafeie (Hassan), Jon Strickland (Dr Foswell), Grant
Thatcher (Sir Guy Willard), Robert Wisdom (Waiter)
Summary: An archaeologist dies of a heart attack shortly after opening an ancient
Egyptian tomb, but his widow thinks there is dirty work at the
crossroads and calls in Poirot. Poirot dismisses the idea of a mummy’s
curse, and by risking his own life he smokes out a murderer.
Poirot is consulted by Lady Willard, the widow of the
famous Egyptologist, Sir John Willard. He was the archaeologist
on the excavation of the tomb of the Pharaoh
Men-her-Ra together with the American financier Mr
Bleibner. Both men died within a fortnight of each other,
Sir John of heart failure and Mr Bleibner of blood poisoning.
A few days later Mr Bleibner’s nephew, Rupert,
shot himself and the press has been full of stories of an
Egyptian curse. Lady Willard’s son, Guy, has now gone
out to Egypt to continue his father’s work and she fears
that he too will die next. To Hasting’s surprise, Poirot
states that he believes in the forces of superstition and
agrees to investigate. As a first step, he cables New York
for details concerning Rupert Bleibner. The young man
was something of an itinerant in the south seas and had
managed to borrow enough money to take him to Egypt
as he told someone he had a ”good friend” there who
he could borrow from. His uncle however refused to advance
him a penny and the nephew had gone back to
New York where he sank lower and lower and then shot
himself, leaving a suicide note saying that he was leper
and an outcast. Poirot and Hastings then travel to Egypt
and join the expedition — only to find that there has
been another death in the party, that of an American by tetanus. Poirot investigates the dig and
feels more and more the forces of evil at work. On one night, Hassan, one of the Arab servants
delivers Poirot his cup of camomile tea. As Hastings watches the desert night he hears Poirot
choking having drunk the tea. He runs and fetches the expedition surgeon — Dr Ames- but this
is a trick to get the doctor into their tent where Poirot orders Hastings to secure him but the doctor
kills himself with a cyanide capsule. Poirot explains that the Rupert was Bleibner’s heir and
the doctor, secretly, must have been Rupert’s heir. Sir John died of natural causes but started
speculation regarding superstition, the force of its suggestions on people being something that
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