Agatha Christie:Poirot

Friday, 29 August 2008
08:30pm

Rosaleen Cloade (Eva Birthwhistle) has been widowed for the second time - at the tender age of 23. Her latest husband, millionaire Gordon Cloade, of the eccentric Cloade clan, has died in an explosion at their Mayfair home. And his sudden demise is a cause of anxiety for the impoverished Cloades.

The clan's hatred is directed not so much at Rosaleen as at her brother David Hunter (Elliot Cowan) whom they accuse of manipulating her. Hercule Poirot observes this at a gathering in rural Warmsley Vale where the Cloades gather to feast their eyes on Rosaleen for the first time. Among the Cloades is Adela (Jenny Agutter) whose daughter Lynn (Amanda Douge), a favourite of Poirot's, has just returned from Africa to be reunited with her fiancé and distant cousin, the farmer Rowley Cloade (Patrick Baladi).

Friday, 22 August 2008
08:30pm

Detective Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) is invited to an evening of bridge - with a twist. The host, enigmatic Shaitana (Alexander Siddig) pairs the wily Belgian with fellow sleuths; Superintendent Jim Wheeler (David Westhead), author Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker) and Colonel Hughes (Robert Pugh) while the other four guests play in an adjoining room. Shaitana, one of the richest men in London, chooses not to play and as the evening progresses, sits in a luxurious leather chair by the fire, eventually falling asleep.

When Superintendent Wheeler of Scotland Yard decides to leave, he cannot rouse Shaitana. He has been stabbed to death and Poirot agrees with the other sleuths' consensus that one of the card players must have killed him.

Friday, 15 August
8.30pm

Tonight we continue repeat screenings of Agatha Christie: Poirot. In After the Funeral, solicitor Gilbert Entwhistle (Robert Bathurst) asks his friend Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) to join him in the English countryside where members of the disconnected Abernethie clan are gathered for the funeral of Richard Abernethie the day after his cremation.

In the congregation are Richard's widowed sister-in-law Helen (Geraldine James) and her ne'er do well son George (Michael Fassbender); his niece Rosamund (Fiona Glasscott) and husband Michael (Julien Ovenden) - both actors, and Rosamund's unmarried sister Susannah (Lucy Punch), who does good works for the church.

Also there, is another sister-in-law Maude (Anna Calder-Marshall), wife of Timothy (Benjamin Whitrow), who is too ill himself to attend.