Agatha Christie was the best selling author of the last century, but it wasn’t until near the end of the century, a decade after her death, that Christie’s stories were transferred to the screen without parody and in the spirit intended by their author. Beginning in the 1980s, Christie’s most popular and prolific detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, were dramatized with a deft touch for British television.
The two series continue to be rerun, anthologized and, in Poirot’s case, produced with the same actor in the title role. The 17-DVD box set, simply titled “Agatha Christie: Poirot & Marple,” collects 12 episodes starring the eccentric Belgian detective and nine featuring the English spinster sleuth. Also just out, “Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Movie Collection Set 4,” features two brand new episodes plus an interesting making-of documentary.
The “Poirot & Marple” set represents a best-of selection from the two series. All of the Poirot episodes were previously released on “The Definitive Collection” and the Miss Marples have also been out on DVD. Patient and observant, with a wisdom that belies her apparently circumscribed life, Jane Marple is embodied with unpretentious dignity by actor Joan Hickson. Unlike many previous portrayals, Hickson takes her character seriously. With Poirot, David Suchet had a more difficult challenge balancing his character’s comical quirks with the seriousness of his mentality and methods. Suchet’s Poirot is funny, but never the butt of the joke.
Agatha Christie won a new generation of fans through the Poirot series, many of whom probably never read her books. Part of the appeal, as acknowledged in “Set 4’s” documentary, is the sumptuous 1930s Art Deco/Moderne ambiance, especially the splendid apartment housing Poirot’s modern art collection and gourmet kitchen, and the fastidiously accurate costumes, cars and settings. The art direction rivals the films of Merchant Ivory for period detailing, making an inviting setting in which to contemplate the darker corners of human psychology.
Of course, there is the question of those incredibly convoluted Christie plots. The production team respected the storylines, although sometimes placing them in larger (and more visually compelling) contexts. The roles of Poirot’s associates, his bumbling sidekick Captain Hastings, his loyal secretary Miss Lemon and the wary-eyed Chief Inspector Japp, were given greater play in some episodes than in the stories. The goal was to create a kind of family dynamic conducive to a television series. It worked. The two new episodes on “Set 4” seem a bit bereft with just Poirot, facing murder without the benefit of his colleagues.
