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List of to be filmed - Poirot

Kanmaitra 23 Jul 09 at 12:27 p.m. GMT

I went through the list of Poirot stories to find out what remains to be filmed. I found the following - 

- The Big Four

- Murder on the Orient Express

- Three Act Tragedy

- The Labours of Hercules (all 12)

- The Market Basing Mystery

- The Lemesurier Inheritance

- Dead Man's Folly

- The Clocks

- Halloween Party

- Elephants can remember

- Curtain

Is this right?

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79 replies

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Ms_Kylie_Menage 02 Dec 12 at 4:15 p.m. GMT

http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2012/12/itv-recruits-helen-baxendale-for-final-poirot-tv-movie/ Hmmm...according to this article, Matthew McNulty is Allerton! Is Neil Stuke Norton then? That'd make more sense. Aidan McArdle may be Curtiss? Does anyone know what these actors autographs look like? Someone has signed Alice's book and put in brackets underneath "Allerton". I really hope Norton is Neil Stuke - with glasses on he does look unobtrusive...

A google search has shown that it is indeed Matthew McNulty's signature credited to Allerton. And Neil Stuke's is the one in the middle, with the nice words about wanting to work with Alice again. My guess is Neil Stuke is Norton. Aidan McArdle might be Curtiss, or perhaps a police officer? It looks as though Anne Reid hasn't signed Alice's book...

CatAmongthePigeons 26 Nov 12 at 1:24 a.m. GMT

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notguilty

In order for the stories to end before the war, they have to start by November 1938.  The war started on 1 September 1939. 

Not necessarily so.  There was a lot of confusion for foreigners, especially in France, during this time

Continuing the possibilities here, since I had too many characters in my original post:

Hyppolita has an ex-Meadowbank pupil heading over to Miss Pope's in Paris because of her artistic talent, Simpson either being a shady dealer or having a possibly pro-German client especially anxious to acquire the Rubens -- which might've been originally "legally stolen" from its Jewish owners years ago as they fled to England.  In the end, the girl not only decides not only to forgo Paris because of the ordeal, but because her canon father is worried about her being abroad with possible war breaking out.

Geryon, which reunites Poirot with Amy, could easily be tweaked to have the cult bear traces of the occult beliefs of the Nazis -- including the belief that they were descended from extraterrestrials -- and the money the followers were murdered for going to fund occult research in Germany.

Cerberus is ideal for the early months of the "phony war":  a basement nightclub called Hell, a shady clientele, the Countess -- whose son could be a scientist working on what will become the Manhattan Project -- and the atmosphere of the real war to come in the following year. 

The Graf Spee can be worked in -- the idea is that Labours should end on New Year's Day, 1940, with Poirot facing a war that he knows will change everything forever.

CatAmongthePigeons 26 Nov 12 at 1:16 a.m. GMT

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Bunch_Marple

Of course some of the tales aren't terribly absorbing but with a little creative licence it would have worked. Anyway, hopefully they can do a decent representation of the spirit of the stories in 2 hours. At least they will finally see the light of day! :)

I'd listed possibilities much earlier.  Lion, the kidnapping of Krufts Best-in-Breed contenders; I still think Judi Dench would make an excellent Amy. 

Boar - a pro-Nazi mastermind forces the doctor to operate by holding family hostage, with the fatalistic woman being somebody from the pre-Mossad sent to rescue/kill the surgeon.  I'd like this ending:  surgery a success, but the man disfigured, the revelation done off-camera.

Stables would be really relevant, X-Ray News being a proto-tabloid.  The same actress could play Dagmar and her doppelganger Thelma.

Birds is in Herzoslovakia.  Handle it two ways: make it Czechoslavakia just before the invasion; or have Herzoslovakia border Czechoslavakia.  Have newsreel footage of the approaching danger begin the episode.  Have the "Birds" be the reason for Poirot's presence; he's been hired to help a multimillionaire businesswoman spirit her sisters out of Herzoslovakia.

Lemesurier will be merged with Bull, the former originally being set in the '20s with Hastings, the idea being that the one reminds Poirot of the other.  Hastings should at least return for the earlier incident.

Bunch_Marple 25 Nov 12 at 11:01 p.m. GMT

Obviously it's been said before but what a shame the labours weren't used as a 12 part series somewhere in the mid-90's before the show concentrated exclusively on the novels..

Of course some of the tales aren't terribly absorbing but with a little creative licence it would have worked. Anyway, hopefully they can do a decent representation of the spirit of the stories in 2 hours. At least they will finally see the light of day! :)

Tommy_A_Jones 24 Nov 12 at 1:20 p.m. GMT

The More and more I think about it I wish ITV had either done The Big Four in 12 Hour=long Episodes or forgotten the Book altogether  

notguilty 24 Nov 12 at 2:10 a.m. GMT

If we wait until New Year's Day 1940, we'll already be into the "phoney war" segment and miss out on the British first siginificant victory, the sinking of the "pocket battleship" Graf Spee.

Just my two cents.

notguilty 24 Nov 12 at 2:05 a.m. GMT

In order for the stories to end before the war, they have to start by November 1938.  The war started on 1 September 1939.  I believe Prime Minister Chamberlain didn't declare war until 3 September.  Hitler, conveniently and intentionally started the war on a weekend, fully knowing the English went to the "country" for the weekend thus delaying their entry.  If we wait until New Year's Da

CatAmongthePigeons 20 Nov 12 at 3:32 a.m. GMT

NightRayDuck

I just looked at the November newsletter from here. It mentioned that Mr. Suchet wanted to film Curtain before filming the other stories still yet to be filmed. I don't remember the entire list, but The Labours of Hercules (yes, all 12) is on the list as episodes to be filmed after filming Curtain.

So, I guess we aren't going to miss out on the rest of the series just because "they're already filming Curtain !!" Yay!

Well, since all 12 Labours will be filmed, maybe Mr. Suchet can be Tweeted about the idea of setting them in 1939, with a case a month, until New Year's Day, 1940, with the war staring Poirot in the face.

NightRayDuck 19 Nov 12 at 7:28 p.m. GMT

I just looked at the November newsletter from here. It mentioned that Mr. Suchet wanted to film Curtain before filming the other stories still yet to be filmed. I don't remember the entire list, but The Labours of Hercules (yes, all 12) is on the list as episodes to be filmed after filming Curtain.

So, I guess we aren't going to miss out on the rest of the series just because "they're already filming Curtain !!" Yay!

GKCfan 17 Nov 12 at 2:32 a.m. GMT

I don't know... Mark Gatiss did the screenplays for Cat Among the Pigeons, Hallowe'en Party, and The Big Four, and he also played Leonard Boynton in Appointment with Death.

Tommy_A_Jones 16 Nov 12 at 4:44 p.m. GMT

I don't think it is unknown for them to be there.

Ms_Kylie_Menage 15 Nov 12 at 11:59 p.m. GMT

Nothing for a while, admittedly. But he signed Alice's book along with the rest of the cast. Is it usual for the screenwriter to be on set?

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Nov 12 at 4:45 p.m. GMT

Who nows, The name of the Murderer might be changed, stranger things have happened, What has Kevin Elyot been in?

Ms_Kylie_Menage 15 Nov 12 at 4:41 p.m. GMT

Oh, of course! Kevin Elyot acts too - he must be Norton!!

shanty_sleuth 15 Nov 12 at 5:12 a.m. GMT

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Daisy Luttrell is in, naturally! She'll be played by Anne Reid (aka Sister Agnes in Geraldine McEwan's version of "Nemesis"). Because no press release has been issued, someone will have to chance upon the actors playing Curtiss and Norton before they're known. But even if Curtiss is not in, then Norton is. It'd be a travesty if the killer were eliminated from an adaptation!

Ms_Kylie_Menage 12 Nov 12 at 10:02 a.m. GMT

Hmmm...the cast list of Curtain is up on imdb.com - and Alice Orr-Ewing tweeted a photograph of the paperback, signed by the cast. Some of the signatures were hard to make out, but now I think they have been accounted for. But not Curtiss, Daisy Luttrell, or Norton! PLEASE don't tell me these characters are deleted from the adaptation?! NO...!!! 

Tommy_A_Jones 29 Oct 12 at 1:03 p.m. GMT

If it is in a Thread that where spoilers will be seen like the Book Club why not put SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!! if people read on and get something spoilt for them it is their own fault, at least you would have warned them,I am confused Is what I thought you were suggesting what you were suggesting or not?

CatAmongthePigeons 29 Oct 12 at 1:39 a.m. GMT

Sorry about that.  I was trying to work around the spoilers rule and, obviously, it didn't work.

Tommy_A_Jones 28 Oct 12 at 3:23 p.m. GMT

I got the impression you were sugfesting that the man Judith works with turns out to be her bio-dad and as Judith ends up woth the man she works with that would be distasteful 

CatAmongthePigeons 28 Oct 12 at 1:30 p.m. GMT

Tommy_A_Jones

Sorry I attributed something to you which was said by someone else, GKC, I have no idea what you mean Cat, It is the wife that gets Killed not the person Judith goes off with and DunleaGlen Dac=vid Suchet has said On Twitter that Curtain is set in the Forties. I do not have trust issues with Twitter probably because of how my life is.  

The villain made Hastings think that Judith is interested in the particular guy.  In reality, she's interested in somebody else who shares her scientific views -- somebody she isn't related to.