Four and Twenty Blackbirds

This was one of the Poirot episodes that required a lot of padding by the screenwriters. The original story itself was quite basic: at dinner one evening, Poirot hears a waitress make a chance remark that a regular customer had ordered a meal that was very different from his usual tastes. A few days later he hears from his dinner companion that that same habitual customer from the restaurant had happened to die that very evening, apparently by accident. Poirot's curiosity is aroused, and by talking with a series of acquaintances of the dead man, and calling on his knowledge of human nature, he is able to determine that the man's death was not all it appeared to be.

A simple enough story, and lacking some of the detail that would make it appealing to television viewers. So, the writers added in some considerable amount of background of the dead man's artistic career and family, along with a series of references to contemporary forensic science (faint traces of CSI!), cricket, and even a passing reference to Raffles, a fictional mystery-solving character from the 1930's. Nothing wrong with any of that. Didn't really add to the essential story, but didn't take away from it either. All in all, an episode that was enjoyable but not very memorable.

For some reason when I was younger, I ignored Agatha Christie stories. In the past few years, I've discovered them from borrowing audio books from the library and greatly enjoyed them - which let me to start reading as well. And so I was delighted to find out about the Poirot series. The few I've seen that I'd read were true to her stories, and those that I'd not read always left me impressed with her writing and tight plots, and left me guessing until the end "who dun it". One really couldn't miss a minute of it.

Therefore I expected so much more from this episode. In fact, until I looked at the other reviews, I really did not think it was based on a 'real' Agatha Christie story. I thought it was written by someone else just using the character. It was just too simplistic and obvious. But as always, the settings are beautiful, although I was still left very disappointed with the plot line. That said, I still have hope for other episodes in the series.

As is to be expected from this outstanding series, the production values, costuming, sets (especially the music hall), music, underlying humor, and acting are all top-notch. Suchet is the quintessential Poirot with, however, perhaps a more pronounced display of humor and wit than Poirot of the books. In this outing, an elderly and eccentric artist dies from an apparent accidental fall down the stairs. But Poirot, while having dinner with his dentist friend at Bishop's Chop House had seen Gascoigne on the night of his death. The waitress comments to Poirot and his friend how much Gascoigne has deviated from his previous schedule and dinner choices. When he later hears that Gascoigne died soon after that dinner, Poirot becomes convinced that Gascoigne was murdered. He also learns that Gascoigne's twin brother has also died. Although it doesn't distract from enjoying this episode, it is slightly flawed by having too few suspects and thus it is easy to figure out whodunit. This quibble is more than offset by the running and humorous side story of Hastings' enthusiasm for following a cricket match. Poirot refers to cricket as "Cricket, an English enigma. I don't know of any other game where even the players are uncertain of the rules." This episode is another winner.

Poirot and Hastings are dining with Poirot's dentist one evening when the waitress points out an eccentric-looking man in the corner. He is Henry Gascoigne, an artist and a man of set routines. Yet he has been varying his habits of late. A few days later Poirot is at his dentist when he is informed that Mr Gascoigne died, apparently by falling down a flight of stairs at his house. For Poirot, the change of habits and sudden death seem too coincidental and he starts looking into Gascoigne's death, suspecting it was murder.

Quite intriguing. The murderer is not obvious until the end (though a process of elimination sort of gets there before then). A few good red herrings and twists too.

Some good by-play between Hastings and Poirot involving cricket (Hastings was due to move on from cars...) and the usual English vs continental food banter.

I have always been a huge fan of Poirot and of Agatha Christie, and alongside The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman, Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb, Wasp's Nest and The Chocolate Box, Four and Twenty Blackbirds is one of the better short story adaptations. It is a simple story, but still very clever and elegant in its simplicity. The writing still has humour, intelligence and suspense, the music is hauntingly beautiful and the adaptation with the evocative atmosphere, beautiful locations and sets and elegant costumes is very well made as usual. David Suchet is impeccable, and he as always is well supported by Hugh Fraser, Phillip Jackson and Pauline Moran. The support cast are solid, with nobody weak but nobody quite up the standard of acting set by the four leads. EastEnders fans look out for John Bardon(aka Jim Branning) as a Lavatory man. All in all, a great episode and one of my favourites of not just the short story adaptations but also of the series. 9/10 Bethany Cox