The Dream

Poirot must discover the power of dream, can the power of suggestion lead someone to the ultimate crime?

I'll admit you'll need a leap of faith to buy into the plot, it is one of the more far fetched ones, but once you're over that it's a very clever, engaging story, beautifully written. A similar tricked is used in Mesopotamia.

Miss Lemon's face at the end is priceless 'it's just what I wanted.'

This episode holds up brilliantly, it's over twenty five years old, and it's still a fantastic watch. A plot full of mystery and intrigue, definitely one to get the grey cells in action.

This is a proper 'let's gather everyone together for the uncovering of the murderer' episode, we'd enjoy it many times more.

Tragic that two of the main stars in this episode are no longer with us. Alan Howard was truly excellent in both roles, giving us two very diverse performances, and the lovely and beautiful Mary Tamm, just great as Mrs Farley, Tamm was such an underrated actress. Joely Richardson of course is very strong too.

A great finale to Series 1, 9/10

This episode is the one where Suchet absolutely nails the character. There are bits and pieces in the previous episodes but this is the one where you can see it all really come together for him. Not the most exciting of stories but watching Suchet's masterclass is more than enough to satisfy.

This plot is similar to another in the Poirot series and actually, it's fairly easy to figure out. However, it's still well done and very entertaining.

Things aren't happy in Poirot's office. Miss Lemon has had it with her ancient typewriter and wants a new one. Though this is news to Poirot, both she and Hastings insist it has been mentioned several times before.

Now he can really forget about it, as he is summoned to meet a man named Farley, the King of Pies, at his manufacturing company. Farley is disturbed about a dream he has had repeatedly. In the dream, at an exact time, he removes a gun from his desk, walks to his window, and kills himself.

Poirot isn't much help and is dismissed by Farley. The next day, Farley is found dead under the circumstances he described. Poirot and Hastings then help Inspector Japp figure out what happened. In the end, the typewriter-seeking Miss Lemon gives Poirot the clue to the case.

A delightful episode that shows activity in Poirot's office with the wonderful Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran) and Hastings (Hugh Fraser), with Poirot at his absent-minded genius best.

Recommended, though not the best story.

I have seen many episodes from this very exciting TV series but I decided not to write about them, there are too many. I make an exception for this one because I consider it the best of all that I have seen, from all points of view, subject, actors, director, everything. Very intelligent. Just watch it!

In the recent years I have seen a few of ITV's Poirot and have viewed them in the context of the other ITV Christie series "Marple" in that I see them as Sunday night specials which are a bit bloated, don't always give the viewer much help to follow along but generally warm you with actors you'll know from other shows, nice periods sets/costumes and the promise of a solution. For some reason I never saw Poirot through the 1990s and never really gave it too much time till I saw a few because my girlfriend enjoys them. As a result of this I decided to jump back to the first season to see what it was originally like, and I'm glad I did.

There is no "first thing" you notice about the show back in the start, because there are a lot of differences. The most obvious for me is that the show understandably doesn't have the feel of a big ITV event or institution, so episodes are under an hour long, there are no big semi- famous ensemble cast and the episodes screened weekly like a regular TV show, rather than one every few months as standalone events. It may not be obvious why this matters but it is a fact that feeds through the whole show and, not to criticise later episodes, this season I found very enjoyable due to this overall feel. It feels lighter and the mysteries are more accessible and stripped down - again, less of a production to get lost in and mostly a tight story. In one of the episodes Poirot goes to a mystery play and gets it wrong, afterwards complaining that he was not given all the facts by the playwright - in some cases with the ITV Christie adaptations I have felt the same way but in this season this was not the case - I followed all of them and felt involved in the mystery even if I was always behind Poirot.

As a factor of time I know Poirot will change because in this first season he is a very different character. I enjoyed very much how irritable and mischievous he was and also how much comedy there was through the episodes; whether it is Poirot's outrage at being dismissed from a trivial case he never wanted in the first place, through to his failure to buy a typewriter or Hastings' belief that Cubism is such so that you can see everything from the front without having walk round the back. This frequent comedic element mixed with the accessibility makes it a very enjoyable first season. On top of this our younger Poirot lacks some of the moral anger he will later have - he seems to enjoy the puzzles rather than hate the criminals, although I thought the show made light of one instance where he lets the "killers" get away free - it is an odd thing to occur with hardly a comment.

The cast are very good from the very start. Suchet is great in terms of his presence but more importantly his timing; he gets such nice little mannerisms that he adds to every scene he is in, making for an intelligent, irritable and funny character. Fraser is much simpler as a "Jolly old chap" type but I enjoyed this presence as he added energy alongside the more clipped Suchet. Jackson and Moran feature regularly in this season and I liked them both in their supporting roles. The weekly cast is nicely free of distracting famous faces, although there are a few faces in there that became famous later. Generally the standard is strong with no bad performances I can think of - although the most memorable for me was the young cook in the first episode who delivers a really funny scene while stating her belief that "white slavers" are to blame for a colleague's disappearance!

I have always "liked" Poirot but just never made a habit to watch it as it screens, but I am glad I decided to watch this first season as it was very entertaining with accessible and satisfying mysteries, good clean delivery and plenty of comedy and character.