The
lowdown: David Suchet plays Hercule Poirot in the long-running
ITV series about Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective.
The series began as a weekly
show of one hour's duration, based on Christie's short stories featuring
Poirot. More recent episodes
have been 2-hour telemovies
(around 90 minutes without commercials), and have largely been based on
the full-length Poirot novels.
A total of 62 episodes have
been aired to date, with another two to be broadcast in 2007.
'One, Two, Buckle My Shoe'
was originally made as a two-part story, but has been re-edited as a telemovie
for the DVD release.
Poirot visits his Harley
Street dentist, Henry Morley, who is subsequently found dead. Suicide is
suspected at first, but then one
of the dentist's patients
is also found dead. Frank Carter (Christopher Eccleston) is the boyfriend
of Morley's receptionist, Gladys.
He becomes a suspect in
Morley's murder as he visited the dentist's clinic at around the time of
his death. He maintains his
innocence, but is arrested
after allegedly firing a gun at his new employer. He insists that he has
been framed, and admits that
he found the body of Morley,
but maintains that he was already dead. It is up to Poirot to determine
the truth.
The
verdict: The 'Poirot' series is essential viewing for anybody
who loves British detective shows, and these lavishly produced
ITV shows superbly capture
the atmosphere of 1930s London and the personality of Christie's most famous
detective. And David
Suchet was simply born to
play the role of Poirot. Christopher Eccleston is also very good, and at
times Frank Carter is very much
like Eccleston's portrayal
of the Doctor, particularly in the scene with the gun.
Trivia:
Paul McGann also had a guest role on an episode of Poirot, 'Sad Cypruss'
made in 2003.
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