The Veiled Lady

This is one of those episodes where the extra scenes written for television are genius. By far the best of them is a scene only alluded to in the original story. Poirot and Hastings meet with a lady who says that a blackmailer has gotten hold of an indiscreet letter that she wrote to a young man years ago, and is threatening to show it to her new fiancé. Poirot finds out that that the blackmailer is going to be out of town, so he finds his address and plans to break into his house to search for the letter. In preparation for the break in, he goes to the house during the day and talks with the housekeeper. Claiming to be a locksmith, he is permitted to "refit" one of the windows with a special burglar-proof lock. Carole Hayman does an excellent job as the suspicious housekeeper; when she asks Poirot about his accent, Poirot throws out a hint: "Madame, what is the country that is full of mountains and is divided into cantons?" The housekeeper considers for a moment and then says skeptically, "You're never Chinese?" Classic.

That night, Poirot and Hastings take advantage of the modified window to break into the house. They find the letter, but just as they are leaving, they discover that the housekeeper has heard movement and gone to fetch a policeman (Hayman has another great scene here accusing Poirot of burglary.) Hastings gets away but Poirot is arrested and put in jail overnight. Hastings calls Japp, who shows up at the jail in the morning to vouch for his friend. One of the greatest lines of the episode: Japp and a constable are peering at Poirot through a small opening of the cell door. The constable asks Japp what the prisoner's name is. Japp says dryly, "No one knows his real name, but everyone calls him Mad Dog." Genius.

Towards the end, there's a scene where Poirot has confronted the criminals with the crime and they're trying to make a getaway. Most of these escape scenes lack interest for me, because they're just a way of padding the original materials and making it a bit more exciting for the viewer, but this scene is rather above average, because it takes place at what appears to be the British Museum. The criminals find a room with a lot of stuffed animals covered in dropcloths, and take refuge under one of them. The sight of Japp pulling a series of cloths like a magician, only to meet the glassy eyed stare of a giraffe or an orangutan, is very well done. Overall, a clever and funny episode.

This delightful episode is a delicate tribute a Sherlock Holmes Story, Charles Augustus Milverton?

Holmes has to rescue love letters written by a young lady before her wedding, in her youth. " Sprightly Watson, nothing more ." Pleading with the blackmailer does not work, so Holmes infiltrates himself into the household, as " Escott, a rising plumber ,by trade" .He becomes engaged to the housemaid, "Lawd, Watson , those talks" .Later Hoolmes ans Watson in Opera clothes + black silk scarves( a hat tip to Raffles? ) Written by E W Hornung,whom Conan Doyle knew well, break in,retrieve the letters + Milverton is murdered in front of them. Pursued by the Polis they escape Hampsted Heath.

Holmes had frequently commentated , that he would have been a Great Criminal.

The next day Inspector Lestrade asks Holmes to help solve the murder,which he refuses to do. They laugh at the description of the escaping 2 men, one with a limp, and a comment is made that it could easily be a description of Holmes and Watson.

Conan Doyle was still writing Holmes stories until 1922, his last bow, and a small piece , "How Watson learned the Trick" for the Queen's Doll House in 1924.

Christie 's writing career over with Doyle 's and it is a joy to see how she reflects ans complements fellow authors in the Golden Age of Dectection, as well as weaving real life events into her novels.

This episode is a perfect continuation to that tradition, and it was made not long after the Granada Production of the Sherlock Holmes Stories and novels had been broadcast, for many ,the definitive Television series in its contemporaneous form.

The BBC Sherlock had to be a modern version,to Make the stories come alive again , rather than being overwhelmed by Jeremy Brett's towering traditional performance.

I would love to know, where was that gorgeous suburban house ?

,

Hercule Poirot is approached by a woman in a veil, seeking his help. She is Lady Millicent and she is being blackmailed by a Mr Lavington over a love letter she wrote as a 16-year-old. After confronting Mr Lavington and achieving nothing, Poirot resolves to break into Mr Lavington's house and steal the letter. He and Hastings break in, but Poirot is caught (and Hastings escapes). When Japp finds Poirot in jail, he mentions that Lavington was murdered several days earlier. In a seemingly unrelated case, the police are on the lookout for jewels that were stolen from a high street jeweller.

Quite intriguing and engaging. Some aspects of the plot are quite obvious (eg that there is a link between the Lady Millicent- Lavington case and the jewel theft - no information in Poirot episodes is extraneous). Still, the overall plot is not that obvious and thus a good puzzle.

Some nice sub-plots and banter too.

"The Veiled Lady" is a very intriguing Hercule Poirot mystery from 1990.

A beautiful young woman asks Poirot to retrieve letters for which she is being blackmailed. The blackmailer comes to Poirot's office by invitation. Poirot attempts to negotiate with him, but the man only comes down a few thousand pounds. It's futile. He mentions that he will contact Poirot when he returns from Paris. Poirot decides to burgle his house and find the letters.

Wearing a cap, he presents himself to the housekeeper as an electrician and proceeds to begin searching. The housekeeper is very uppity and talks his ear off, stating that she is not live-in. Poirot leaves, informing her he will be back tomorrow.

That night, he and Hastings break into the house. Poirot finds the letters in a Chinese box inserted in a log. Turns out, the housekeeper was lying -- she says she knew he was casing the joint -- Hastings panics and takes off, throwing himself out a closed window. It was hilarious. Poirot spends the night in the slammer, Japp pointing out to a junior office that this particular prisoner is especially dangerous and called "Mad Dog."

It unfolds from there. It has a neat twist and it's filled with humor. Loved the ending. One of the livelier episodes. Poirot is finally released

This was quite different to most Poirot stories as he resorts to burglary to help the damsel in distress and his little grey cells don't really whir into action until late in the episode.

I found it quite funny with Poirot and Hastings running down the street in camouflage to get to the house, reminded me of an episode of Only Fools and Horses when Del and Rodney run along the road dressed up as Batman and Robin, both had tall and thin and short slightly dumpy characters.

Lots of other comedic situations and Poirot for once being mistaken as a foreigner from a country other than France.

I think Suchet must have had fun making this as well.

So much more fun than the later series, which became quite sombre. Maybe a little too frivolous for some.