Agatha Christie's Poirot and Other Detective Fiction Discussion (Novels, Stories, Film, TV & Radio)

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  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    edited May 2022 Posts: 25,133
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Did anybody see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot film of Death on the Nile in the cinema earlier in the year? I meant to go but didn't get around to it sadly.

    Edit: Looking at the reviews it seems I made the right decision!

    I watched it and it was very dissapointing, I did question whether my familiarity with the story maybe impacted my viewing though the truth is the Ustinov version is far superior and far more charming. I also did not like a few things Brannagh did with Poirot, well Brannagh's character simply put is not Poirot. The film is available to watch on Disney +.

    Also the excessive use of CGI fake environments is very off putting in the new film.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    Posts: 25,133
    Ludovico wrote: »
    maxresdefault.jpg
    Just finished the three part mini series, I thoroughly enjoyed it very well directed by Hugh Laurie. Going in I was not familiar with the story despite there being a few earlier adaptions, one adaption was changed into a Marple mystery. Lucy Boynton was star of the show, incredibly talented actress amongst a star studded cast.
    Need to watch that.

    I highly recommend I watched the whole mini series in one sitting, there are some quite tense moments that had me gripped. The locations, costume designs and score were excellent.
  • Posts: 15,123
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Did anybody see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot film of Death on the Nile in the cinema earlier in the year? I meant to go but didn't get around to it sadly.

    Edit: Looking at the reviews it seems I made the right decision!

    I watched it and it was very dissapointing, I did question whether my familiarity with the story maybe impacted my viewing though the truth is the Ustinov version is far superior and far more charming. I also did not like a few things Brannagh did with Poirot, well Brannagh's character simply put is not Poirot. The film is available to watch on Disney +.

    Also the excessive use of CGI fake environments is very off putting in the new film.

    Brannagh is capable of the best and the worst. And he tends to miscast himself now, I think.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    Posts: 25,133
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Did anybody see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot film of Death on the Nile in the cinema earlier in the year? I meant to go but didn't get around to it sadly.

    Edit: Looking at the reviews it seems I made the right decision!

    I watched it and it was very dissapointing, I did question whether my familiarity with the story maybe impacted my viewing though the truth is the Ustinov version is far superior and far more charming. I also did not like a few things Brannagh did with Poirot, well Brannagh's character simply put is not Poirot. The film is available to watch on Disney +.

    Also the excessive use of CGI fake environments is very off putting in the new film.

    Brannagh is capable of the best and the worst. And he tends to miscast himself now, I think.

    I am happy that Brannagh has introduced Poirot/Christie to a more modern audience despite his films being average at best. Hopefully the younger generations will seek out far superior interpretations of Christies work. Suchet's Death on the Nile is far better. At times Branaghs Death on the Nile felt like a Marvel film, perhaps that was the intention.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,280
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Did anybody see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot film of Death on the Nile in the cinema earlier in the year? I meant to go but didn't get around to it sadly.

    Edit: Looking at the reviews it seems I made the right decision!

    I watched it and it was very dissapointing, I did question whether my familiarity with the story maybe impacted my viewing though the truth is the Ustinov version is far superior and far more charming. I also did not like a few things Brannagh did with Poirot, well Brannagh's character simply put is not Poirot. The film is available to watch on Disney +.

    Also the excessive use of CGI fake environments is very off putting in the new film.

    Brannagh is capable of the best and the worst. And he tends to miscast himself now, I think.

    I am happy that Brannagh has introduced Poirot/Christie to a more modern audience despite his films being average at best. Hopefully the younger generations will seek out far superior interpretations of Christies work. Suchet's Death on the Nile is far better. At times Branaghs Death on the Nile felt like a Marvel film, perhaps that was the intention.

    The excessive use of CGI would see to that I suppose. I really must rewatch the Peter Ustinov version of that one where they actually filmed things for real on location, like they used to do. :)
  • Posts: 15,123
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Did anybody see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot film of Death on the Nile in the cinema earlier in the year? I meant to go but didn't get around to it sadly.

    Edit: Looking at the reviews it seems I made the right decision!

    I watched it and it was very dissapointing, I did question whether my familiarity with the story maybe impacted my viewing though the truth is the Ustinov version is far superior and far more charming. I also did not like a few things Brannagh did with Poirot, well Brannagh's character simply put is not Poirot. The film is available to watch on Disney +.

    Also the excessive use of CGI fake environments is very off putting in the new film.

    Brannagh is capable of the best and the worst. And he tends to miscast himself now, I think.

    I am happy that Brannagh has introduced Poirot/Christie to a more modern audience despite his films being average at best. Hopefully the younger generations will seek out far superior interpretations of Christies work. Suchet's Death on the Nile is far better. At times Branaghs Death on the Nile felt like a Marvel film, perhaps that was the intention.

    The thing is... she's maybe THE most sold author in history. Not sure if modern audiences needed to be introduced to her work. However dated it can be.
  • Agent_Zero_OneAgent_Zero_One Ireland
    edited May 2022 Posts: 554
    Haven't seen Branagh's version but at least there'll always be Suchet's. That's one of my favourite episodes of his run.
  • Posts: 15,123
    Haven't seen Branagh's version but at least there'll always be Suchet's. That's one of my favourite episodes of his run.

    Maybe the best Poirot. Although Albert Finney was great too.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,280
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Haven't seen Branagh's version but at least there'll always be Suchet's. That's one of my favourite episodes of his run.

    Maybe the best Poirot. Although Albert Finney was great too.

    Agreed on both counts.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    edited May 2022 Posts: 25,133
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Did anybody see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot film of Death on the Nile in the cinema earlier in the year? I meant to go but didn't get around to it sadly.

    Edit: Looking at the reviews it seems I made the right decision!

    I watched it and it was very dissapointing, I did question whether my familiarity with the story maybe impacted my viewing though the truth is the Ustinov version is far superior and far more charming. I also did not like a few things Brannagh did with Poirot, well Brannagh's character simply put is not Poirot. The film is available to watch on Disney +.

    Also the excessive use of CGI fake environments is very off putting in the new film.

    Brannagh is capable of the best and the worst. And he tends to miscast himself now, I think.

    I am happy that Brannagh has introduced Poirot/Christie to a more modern audience despite his films being average at best. Hopefully the younger generations will seek out far superior interpretations of Christies work. Suchet's Death on the Nile is far better. At times Branaghs Death on the Nile felt like a Marvel film, perhaps that was the intention.

    The excessive use of CGI would see to that I suppose. I really must rewatch the Peter Ustinov version of that one where they actually filmed things for real on location, like they used to do. :)

    I have all the Ustinov films, Death on the Nile is my favourite of the series and has the best cast. I agree you cannot beat real locations and practical stunts.
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Did anybody see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot film of Death on the Nile in the cinema earlier in the year? I meant to go but didn't get around to it sadly.

    Edit: Looking at the reviews it seems I made the right decision!

    I watched it and it was very dissapointing, I did question whether my familiarity with the story maybe impacted my viewing though the truth is the Ustinov version is far superior and far more charming. I also did not like a few things Brannagh did with Poirot, well Brannagh's character simply put is not Poirot. The film is available to watch on Disney +.

    Also the excessive use of CGI fake environments is very off putting in the new film.

    Brannagh is capable of the best and the worst. And he tends to miscast himself now, I think.

    I am happy that Brannagh has introduced Poirot/Christie to a more modern audience despite his films being average at best. Hopefully the younger generations will seek out far superior interpretations of Christies work. Suchet's Death on the Nile is far better. At times Branaghs Death on the Nile felt like a Marvel film, perhaps that was the intention.

    The thing is... she's maybe THE most sold author in history. Not sure if modern audiences needed to be introduced to her work. However dated it can be.

    I am a few years off 50 I was thinking more of the younger generation that may not have been introduced to Agatha Christies work as yet, Brannaghs films are average though they serve to put Christie in the public consciousness. I personally never see Christies work or adaptions dated. Rene Clair's And Then There Were None is probably the filmed adaption I go back to the most from 1945. Christie was so ahead of her time IMO.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    edited June 2022 Posts: 25,133
    For UK viewers the following will be shown on BBC TWO on Saturday 4th June...

    Evil Under the Sun [HD]* @ 13:20

    Agatha Christie: Talking Pictures @ 15:15

    Death on the Nile [HD]* @ 15:45

    *Peter Ustinov.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,413
    maxresdefault.jpg
    Just finished the three part mini series, I thoroughly enjoyed it very well directed by Hugh Laurie. Going in I was not familiar with the story despite there being a few earlier adaptions, one adaption was changed into a Marple mystery. Lucy Boynton was star of the show, incredibly talented actress amongst a star studded cast.

    Yes I enjoyed this a lot, although I must admit I got a little confused towards the end. Quite a lot of what has happened occurs offscreen.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    Posts: 25,133
    mtm wrote: »
    maxresdefault.jpg
    Just finished the three part mini series, I thoroughly enjoyed it very well directed by Hugh Laurie. Going in I was not familiar with the story despite there being a few earlier adaptions, one adaption was changed into a Marple mystery. Lucy Boynton was star of the show, incredibly talented actress amongst a star studded cast.

    Yes I enjoyed this a lot, although I must admit I got a little confused towards the end. Quite a lot of what has happened occurs offscreen.

    I actually rewound a particular scene just to take in what was being revealed, I will defintely watch the mini series again there was a lot to like, in fact I will likely purchase the series.
  • Posts: 15,123
    For UK viewers the following will be shown on BBC TWO on Saturday 4th June...

    Evil Under the Sun [HD]* @ 13:20

    Agatha Christie: Talking Pictures @ 15:15

    Death on the Nile [HD]* @ 15:45

    *Peter Ustinov.

    Evil Under the Sun is always shoeing on the BBC, or so it seems to me. Great casting but gosh I can't stand Ustinov in it.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,413
    I think all of the Ustinovs are on Britbox(UK) too at the moment.
    mtm wrote: »
    maxresdefault.jpg
    Just finished the three part mini series, I thoroughly enjoyed it very well directed by Hugh Laurie. Going in I was not familiar with the story despite there being a few earlier adaptions, one adaption was changed into a Marple mystery. Lucy Boynton was star of the show, incredibly talented actress amongst a star studded cast.

    Yes I enjoyed this a lot, although I must admit I got a little confused towards the end. Quite a lot of what has happened occurs offscreen.

    I actually rewound a particular scene just to take in what was being revealed, I will defintely watch the mini series again there was a lot to like, in fact I will likely purchase the series.

    Yeah I had to read the wiki page! :D It does get explained in rather a rush, and to be honest I'm still not entirely sure I have a complete handle on it.
    From the wiki it does seem that Laurie made some good changes when adapting it.
  • Posts: 15,123
    Off topic, but I always thought Nicholas Clay, who played in Evil Under the Sun, may have made a great successor for Moore as Bond. Look at him in both this movie and Excalibur.
  • Posts: 1,314
    Funnily enough I’m just reading Appointment with Death. Can’t say the Agatha is a particularly good prose writer. Very little in the way of colourful or creative writing. Though she can create gripping bigger picture storytelling.
  • Posts: 2,918
    A little snippet from the Evening Standard (June 16, 1960):
    Mr. Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, said he never read detective stories. “I think they’re frightfully dull.”
    “What I like is some amusing background and that sort of thing—not a lot of nice English bobbies sitting around drinking tea.”
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited June 2022 Posts: 16,413
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Off topic, but I always thought Nicholas Clay, who played in Evil Under the Sun, may have made a great successor for Moore as Bond. Look at him in both this movie and Excalibur.

    Yes he was very Bondy in that.

    I always thought that Michael Feast in the BBC 'Caribbean Mystery' looked pretty much like how I imagined Fleming's Bond to be; he dressed like him too, and the setting was very Fleming.
    190full-a-caribbean-mystery-%281989%29-screenshot.jpg
  • Posts: 15,123
    Revelator wrote: »
    A little snippet from the Evening Standard (June 16, 1960):
    Mr. Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, said he never read detective stories. “I think they’re frightfully dull.”
    “What I like is some amusing background and that sort of thing—not a lot of nice English bobbies sitting around drinking tea.”

    He does mention Agatha Christie in OHMSS, and in a rather positive way.
  • edited June 2022 Posts: 2,918
    Perhaps, though in his Sunday Times interview with Simenon (Sept. 15, 1963) Fleming says:
    But of course we’ve still got in England the old-fashioned detective story—the Agatha Christie type of story, with the suspects and the poisoning and all the rest of it. I personally can’t read them, because I'm not interested enough in who did it. But lots of people, the Oxford don and the Cambridge don, go on writing this sort of book. Up to a point in America too—Rex Stout and Erie Stanley Gardner. They’re all exactly the same, the Erie Stanley Gardner ones. I can’t read them. But Stout I always read because his Nero Wolfe is such a splendid monster.
  • Posts: 15,123
    Revelator wrote: »
    Perhaps, though in his Sunday Times interview with Simenon (Sept. 15, 1963) Fleming says:
    But of course we’ve still got in England the old-fashioned detective story—the Agatha Christie type of story, with the suspects and the poisoning and all the rest of it. I personally can’t read them, because I'm not interested enough in who did it. But lots of people, the Oxford don and the Cambridge don, go on writing this sort of book. Up to a point in America too—Rex Stout and Erie Stanley Gardner. They’re all exactly the same, the Erie Stanley Gardner ones. I can’t read them. But Stout I always read because his Nero Wolfe is such a splendid monster.
    I don't think he was merely polite: he didn't need to mention her. It's at the beginning, when Bond meets Tracy in the casino, there is a kindly old lady who looks like Agatha Christie, or something like that. I think Fleming was commencing on the kind of English lady Dame Christie was (one who grew up in the Victorian era, rather warm and friendly, wealthy but humble, etc.) more than the writer she was or the genre she was writing. I have no doubt that, as a friend of Raymond Chandler, he had contempt for whodunits. And I'm not surprised he enjoyed Nero Wolfe.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,280
    Trailer for the new TV series Agatha Christie's Hjerson, based on the detective character Ariadne Oliver (from the Poirot novels and TV adaptations) writes about:

  • Posts: 15,123
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Trailer for the new TV series Agatha Christie's Hjerson, based on the detective character Ariadne Oliver (from the Poirot novels and TV adaptations) writes about:


    I think it's really pressing the lemon. What's next, a whole adaptation of "The Murder of Gonzago" from Hamlet? A TV series based on the short story Quantum of Solace focusing on the disintegration of the marriage between Philip Masters and Rhoda Llewellyn? An adaptation of the TV series Murphy's son watches in Robocop?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited August 2022 Posts: 18,280
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Trailer for the new TV series Agatha Christie's Hjerson, based on the detective character Ariadne Oliver (from the Poirot novels and TV adaptations) writes about:


    I think it's really pressing the lemon. What's next, a whole adaptation of "The Murder of Gonzago" from Hamlet? A TV series based on the short story Quantum of Solace focusing on the disintegration of the marriage between Philip Masters and Rhoda Llewellyn? An adaptation of the TV series Murphy's son watches in Robocop?

    Yes, I'd tend to agree. The link with Agatha Christie is rather tenuous of course but her name being attached to it will certainly help to sell the series around the world. Such is the age we live in, sadly. They squeeze the lemon until even the pips squeak. The only thing lost on the pig is its squeal etc.
  • Posts: 15,123
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Trailer for the new TV series Agatha Christie's Hjerson, based on the detective character Ariadne Oliver (from the Poirot novels and TV adaptations) writes about:


    I think it's really pressing the lemon. What's next, a whole adaptation of "The Murder of Gonzago" from Hamlet? A TV series based on the short story Quantum of Solace focusing on the disintegration of the marriage between Philip Masters and Rhoda Llewellyn? An adaptation of the TV series Murphy's son watches in Robocop?

    Yes, I'd tend to agree. The link with Agatha Christie is rather tenuous of course but her name being attached to it will certainly help to sell the series around the world. Such is the age we live in, sadly. They squeeze the lemon until even the pips squeak. The only thing lost on the pig is its squeal etc.

    They're using the name Agatha Christie for brand recognition, but nothing else.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited August 2022 Posts: 18,280
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Trailer for the new TV series Agatha Christie's Hjerson, based on the detective character Ariadne Oliver (from the Poirot novels and TV adaptations) writes about:


    I think it's really pressing the lemon. What's next, a whole adaptation of "The Murder of Gonzago" from Hamlet? A TV series based on the short story Quantum of Solace focusing on the disintegration of the marriage between Philip Masters and Rhoda Llewellyn? An adaptation of the TV series Murphy's son watches in Robocop?

    Yes, I'd tend to agree. The link with Agatha Christie is rather tenuous of course but her name being attached to it will certainly help to sell the series around the world. Such is the age we live in, sadly. They squeeze the lemon until even the pips squeak. The only thing lost on the pig is its squeal etc.

    They're using the name Agatha Christie for brand recognition, but nothing else.

    Yes, and rather cynically so. I've not read any of the Poirot novels that Ariadne Oliver features in but I think she's maybe a kind of meta reference to Agatha Christie herself, also being a detective novelist. I'm surmising that her Swedish detective Hjerson isn't developed very much in the novels she writes and that this is all written by new writers instead trading on the famous Agatha Christie name while simultaneously riding on the wave of currently in vogue Scandi crime dramas.
  • Posts: 15,123
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Trailer for the new TV series Agatha Christie's Hjerson, based on the detective character Ariadne Oliver (from the Poirot novels and TV adaptations) writes about:


    I think it's really pressing the lemon. What's next, a whole adaptation of "The Murder of Gonzago" from Hamlet? A TV series based on the short story Quantum of Solace focusing on the disintegration of the marriage between Philip Masters and Rhoda Llewellyn? An adaptation of the TV series Murphy's son watches in Robocop?

    Yes, I'd tend to agree. The link with Agatha Christie is rather tenuous of course but her name being attached to it will certainly help to sell the series around the world. Such is the age we live in, sadly. They squeeze the lemon until even the pips squeak. The only thing lost on the pig is its squeal etc.

    They're using the name Agatha Christie for brand recognition, but nothing else.

    Yes, and rather cynically so. I've not read any of the Poirot novels that Ariadne Oliver features in but I think she's maybe a kind of meta reference to Agatha Christie herself, also being a detective novelist. I'm surmising that her Swedish detective Hjerson isn't developed very much in the novels she writes and that this is all written by new writers instead trading on the famous Agatha Christie name while simultaneously riding on the wave of currently in vogue Scandi crime dramas.

    Yes it's pretty much it: Ariadne Oliver was an author's avatar and her creation a way to take digs at Poirot, whom Christie often found cumbersome. Sven Hjerson was this implausible sleuth, Finnish while her creator knows nothing of Finland and vegetarian because... she thought it was a good idea at the time. He's a big meta joke and shouldn't be anything else than that.

    On a side note, if the Belgians want to make a prequel series with Hercule Poirot as a young police officer, I'm all for it.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,280
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Trailer for the new TV series Agatha Christie's Hjerson, based on the detective character Ariadne Oliver (from the Poirot novels and TV adaptations) writes about:


    I think it's really pressing the lemon. What's next, a whole adaptation of "The Murder of Gonzago" from Hamlet? A TV series based on the short story Quantum of Solace focusing on the disintegration of the marriage between Philip Masters and Rhoda Llewellyn? An adaptation of the TV series Murphy's son watches in Robocop?

    Yes, I'd tend to agree. The link with Agatha Christie is rather tenuous of course but her name being attached to it will certainly help to sell the series around the world. Such is the age we live in, sadly. They squeeze the lemon until even the pips squeak. The only thing lost on the pig is its squeal etc.

    They're using the name Agatha Christie for brand recognition, but nothing else.

    Yes, and rather cynically so. I've not read any of the Poirot novels that Ariadne Oliver features in but I think she's maybe a kind of meta reference to Agatha Christie herself, also being a detective novelist. I'm surmising that her Swedish detective Hjerson isn't developed very much in the novels she writes and that this is all written by new writers instead trading on the famous Agatha Christie name while simultaneously riding on the wave of currently in vogue Scandi crime dramas.

    Yes it's pretty much it: Ariadne Oliver was an author's avatar and her creation a way to take digs at Poirot, whom Christie often found cumbersome. Sven Hjerson was this implausible sleuth, Finnish while her creator knows nothing of Finland and vegetarian because... she thought it was a good idea at the time. He's a big meta joke and shouldn't be anything else than that.

    On a side note, if the Belgians want to make a prequel series with Hercule Poirot as a young police officer, I'm all for it.

    Ah, I see. I thought it was something like that. It kind reminds me (albeit it was on a much smaller scale) of Fleming's meta reference to a series of Bond-like novels that existed in Bond's world as well, that are mentioned in the Times Obit in YOLT.
  • Posts: 5,994
    I have to agree : this is a very bad idea.
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