UK Yellow Iris
Poirot arrives at a party being held by a rich American, exactly one year since his wife Iris had been killed at a similar event. The only difference between now and then is the presence of Poirot – can he find her killer? From Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories and The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories.
More about this story
Published as a short story in 1937, Yellow Iris is set in a restaurant and the location obviously appealed to the BBC's producers who commissioned an hour long adaptation for The National Programme. The Yellow Iris was broadcast in the same year but met with mixed reviews as the action/dialogue was interspersed with the performances of the cabaret artistes who were supposedly on the bill at the restaurant. As enjoyable as the acts were, they made it difficult to follow the plot! It marked Poirot's debut on radio, played by Anthony Holles.
Agatha Christie later used the central idea and setting of Yellow Iris in her 1945 full-length novel Sparkling Cyanide.
The short story was included in the collection The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories, first published the US in 1939 and later in Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories where it was published for the first time in the UK in 1991.
It was adapted for TV by ITV in 1993, with David Suchet in the lead role. It is unusual in that it shows flashbacks to 1935 and Poirot on holiday in Buenos Aires.
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