<p> Balancing the humorous and the serious with the agility of a tightrope artist, the great British actor David Suchet is incomparable as Hercule Poirot. The British television series has continued sporadically during the past few years, but the classic period for “Agatha Christie's Poirot” was 1989-2001, when the Belgian detective was accompanied by his “associate,” Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser), and matched wits with his friendly rival, Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson). </p> <p>The pleasure of watching the latest DVD release, “Agatha Christie's Poirot: Series 5,” comes less from the plots (some of them absurd in their convoluted complexity) than the acting and high style. Messrs. Merchant and Ivory never lavished more attention on art direction and period detail than the Poirot crew. Inhabiting the beveled geometry of an Art Deco world, where everything is just so, Suchet's Poirot is a memorable creation, a dandy with an ego as outsized as an ostrich egg but with powers of perception rivaling Sherlock Holmes. </p>
