Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (DVD)

...one of which is the Poirot series starring David Suchet, in which the original stories are generally unadulterated - unlike the latest Miss Marple series.

The story
Mabelle Sainsbury Seale is thrilled to meet the husband, banker Alistair Blunt, of her best friend from 12 years ago when they were in India together and rushes to get in touch with her old friend. At the same time, Poirot has terrible toothache and is forced to ...
...having her teeth checked. When Poirot later finds out that his dentist was murdered shortly after his visit, he is intrigued. This death is followed shortly afterwards by the murder of a woman thought to be Mabelle Sainsbury Seale and another of the dentist's patients that tragic morning.

When Chief Inspector Japp realises that Poirot is a potential witness, he welcomes his old friend to work with him to solve the mystery. Yet nothing ... more

Introduction
I'm not sure what it is about Agatha Christie, but despite the fact that her stories were mostly written in the first half of the twentieth century, they still remain as popular today, if not more so. Translating the stories over onto the television and into film hasn't always been quite so successful; with a few exceptions, one of which is the Poirot series starring David Suchet, in which the original stories are generally unadulterated - unlike the latest Miss Marple series.

The story
Mabelle Sainsbury Seale is thrilled to meet the husband, banker Alistair Blunt, of her best friend from 12 years ago when they were in India together and rushes to get in touch with her old friend. At the same time, Poirot has terrible toothache and is forced to visit his dentist, Mr Morley, coincidentally on the same day that Mabelle is having her teeth checked. When Poirot later finds out that his dentist was murdered shortly after his visit, he is intrigued. This death is followed shortly afterwards by the murder of a woman thought to be Mabelle Sainsbury Seale and another of the dentist's patients that tragic morning.

When Chief Inspector Japp realises that Poirot is a potential witness, he welcomes his old friend to work with him to solve the mystery. Yet nothing is straightforward and nobody seems to be telling the truth. Can they work out who the murderer is before more people die?

The characters/actors
I've said it before and I'll say it again, David Suchet is the closest actor to my idea of Poirot that there has ever been, even down to the moustache and the preciseness of manner. He plays the role with just enough humour to take the edge of the drama, without making it laughable. Having played the role now for nearly 20 years, it is hard to imagine him in any other role - luckily he hasn't finished making all the Poirot stories yet and he plans to do so, so hopefully he will be around for a lot longer yet. Philip Jackson also did admirably as CI Japp, as usual.

I was very surprised to see a very young Christopher Eccleston in the role of Frank Carter, who was present in the dentist's surgery that morning and as the genuine angry young man, is a major suspect. He is a member of the British Union of Fascists, or blackshirts as they were known, and is deeply despised by Mr Morley. Within a year of this role, he got the role of DCI Bilborough in ITV's Cracker. He definitely did justice to the role, and although it is not his strongest by a long chalk, it is easy to see why he has become so sought after as an actor.

There were an awful lot of other characters; so many that it actually got a bit confusing at times. Probably the two most important characters worth mentioning (apart from Poirot and Japp that is) are the banker, Alistair Blunt, played by Peter Blythe and Miss Sainsbury Seale, played by Carolyn Colquhoun. Peter Blythe, who died in 2004, played the Tory minister Tom King in The Alan Clark Diaries. He gave a strong performance as Blunt, a man full of self-importance. I wasn't too keen on Carolyn Colquhoun's performance though. She plays a ditzy 40 something lady, but takes the ditzy bit a little too far and left me feeling cold.

Technical bits

Classification: PG

Running time: 101 minutes

Conclusion
I think you definitely need to be a fan of Agatha Christie or early twentieth century detective fiction to really appreciate this particular episode. I really enjoyed it because it was one of the Poirot stories that I was not so familiar with and therefore couldn't remember the end. However, it isn't one of the best stories and for Agatha Christie beginners (are there really any?), I would recommend one of the better known stories, such as Death on the Nile, to begin with. I think the main problem with this particular story is that there are too many characters and is hard to keep a track of what is going on at times. Nothing that an avid fan like me can't cope with though!

One thing that I really did appreciate about this episode and most of the others in this series is that it follows the book very very closely. There are a few really minor points that have been changed; for example, the dentist Mr Morley had a partner in the book, but really nothing worth commenting on. I appreciate that TV versions of books are often quite different from the original story, but in the case of Agatha Christie, whose stories are so well-known, it really annoys me when the stories are tinkered with.

Despite the fact that there were too many characters and that it wasn't one of Poirot's best cases, I still loved this; hence four stars.

I watched the film version of this film, but the DVD is available from Amazon from £2.65.
 

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