The Dream

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.

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.

Benedict Farley is the wealthy owner of a pie factory, a man with a Victorian attitude. He makes lots of pies, keeps a tight grip on his family and expects his low paid staff to be grateful to him for providing employment to them.

Farley calls in Poirot because he has been having a recurring dream that he will kill himself at a certain time of the day. Indeed his body is found by an employee the following day.

Poirot is called in because he seems to be the only one Farley confided to about this dream.

I thought behind Farley and his bushy eyebrows and thick spectacles was the actor Bob Peck as he sounded like him. The episode does feature descendants of the great and the good. Joely Richardson (daughter of Vanessa Redgrave) and Alan Howard (nephew of Leslie Howard.)

The iconic art deco Hoover Building stands in for the pie factory. It is now a Tesco supermarket and an Indian restaurant. My wife immediately remarked that it looked familiar to her as we have visited the building.

The mystery does share a theme to an earlier episode from the first series but it is enjoyable enough but not really a deep mystery.

By and large I liked the first series even if some of the mysteries were not too strong. The hour length episodes were tight, ITV had lavished money on the series with the art deco art direction being outstanding. Suchet hit the right note with his portrayal, smart, wily and humorous.

It was a shame that the later feature length film versions became flabby, the art and set directions were not as exquisite and Poirot became rather a bad tempered bore.

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!

Hercule Poirot is invited by wealthy industrialist / pork pie king, Benedict Farley, to take on his case. When they meet at Mr Farley's factory, Mr Farley tells Poirot that he believes someone is trying to hypnotise him into committing suicide. Mr Poirot is quite dismissive of Mr Farley's suggestion and the meeting ends. The next day, Mr Farley is found dead in his office, shot through the head, apparently at his own hand. Chief Inspector Japp would normally write it up as suicide and close the case, but the fact that Poirot was previously contacted by Mr Farley makes him think it could be murder, and that Poirot's assistance is needed.

Reasonably intriguing, especially as regards the murder method. Motives are quite basic. Quite a few dead giveaways right at the beginning to some of the machinations involved in the plot.

A nice sub-plot involving Miss Lemon and her typewriter. Supporting cast includes Joely Richardson.