The Veiled Lady

The closing credits of this episode (The veiled lady S2 E2) are those of The kidnapped Prime Minister (S2 E8). The supporting actors' names aren't there 🙃

"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

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.

As a fan of the series, I have always considered The Veiled Lady one of the better short-story adaptations. It is a little too short, only by about three or four minutes, but so much compensates. Once again, it is wonderfully made with an evocative atmosphere and everything on screen looking splendid, and the music is hauntingly beautiful. The story is clever and always compelling, I did like that Poirot does a lot of snooping around in this one and the climax in the museum is both thrilling and tense. The writing again is intelligent and thought-provoking, alongside the funny moments(Japp's "Nobody knows his real name, but they call him "Mad Dog"" is another addition to the already long list of funny moments in the Poirot series). The acting I also can't fault, David Suchet is as ever impeccable, and Hugh Fraser, Phillip Jackson and Pauline Moran match him perfectly and their chemistry's a joy. Frances Barber has only been more lovely in the Inspector Morse episode Death of the Self in my opinion. Overall, a top-notch episode. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I'm surprised to see this episode languishing at the foot of the table (Poirot rankings IMDb,) for me this is one of the best short story adaptations, mainly because this is where for me (and i'm sure many others) the Frances Barber idolising started, when she meets Poirot and drops that veil she is so beautiful, and gives a wonderful performance in this episode, bouncing brilliantly off all the cast. There's a good amount of humour in this one, Poirot, Japp and the housekeeper deliver some great lines. It's not the most in depth episode I guess, but it is all perfectly delivered, how nice it would have been for it to be longer, I can't resist watching this one over and over, it is brilliant!!