Agatha Christie's Poirot: Hallowe'en Party

So, here’s how to make an Agatha Christie drama... Set it on a dark, cold night, full of menace and suspense (Halloween would be good), mix in a random selection of guests meeting for the first time (perhaps an icily cold sex-pot, a balding and nervous alcoholic, a kindly vicar, and a precocious scamp that doesn’t know when to shut up) and chuck them all into an oversized, over-furnished posh house.

One of the most fun things about ITV’s Christie adaptations is how ruthlessly they aim for the US market, bludgeoning you over the head with every cliché going, with all the subtlety of a length of lead piping. It’s like being bound up with the old school tie, having your mouth stuffed with scones, and being shoved into a red telephone box while someone complains about the weather.

When the clichés are this strong and clearly defined, it’s best to go along with it and surrender, and so screenwriter Mark Gatiss brings a strong and assured hand to this adaptation. He’s helped in that Hallowe'en Party, while being one of the Dame’s lesser known (and indeed, less liked) novels, is one of her most modern and shocking.

The choice of the victim alone makes for uncomfortable entertainment, and some of the pre-occupations and desires of the main characters are very indicative of the age (even if Gatiss’ spin dials this back from 1969 to an era more recognisably Christie). ‘I love a good blood curdler, me’ remarks one character after listening to some schlock horror on the radio (voiced almost inevitably by Gatiss himself).

With Zoe Wannamaker playing a sly version of Agatha Christie, sitting next to Fenella Woolgar (who’s already played the world famous crime writer in a episode of Doctor Who¸ and therefore looks particularly at home here), this is pretty much Christie as you’d expect. If you’re not a fan, there’s nothing here to change your mind. Equally, if you have already had the conversation that contains the line ‘Well, Joan Hickson was the best Marple, wasn’t she?’, then this is like coming home - even if home is where the escaped lunatic is.

It’s possible you’ll spot the guilty party as soon as they appear onscreen, and the social classes get merely rankled by the sociopaths - ‘Cleaning up after a party is always a bit of a chore, but when one’s had a murder ..’. Meanwhile David Suchet is once more the definitive Poriot, announcing his own name with pride whenever he has half a chance and fussily proud of his own talents. Famously, it’s a rather more sympathetic depiction of the little Belgian than even his creator allowed him, and that’s all to the good - particularly in this story, which is Agatha Christie very much aware of a new, autumn nastier world colliding with her own little cosy drawing room of elegant killings.

The screen is drenched in autumnal hues and tones, leaves littering everywhere, so, as the clocks go back this weekend, it seems an apt time to catch this. There are less than ten Poriot tales left to be adapted, and it’s long been accepted that there’s no guarantee that they’ll actually be made. If they have the chance of being as good as this, that would be a genuine crime.



Airs at 8pm on Wednesday 27th October 2010 on ITV1.

> Buy the Poirot: The Complete Collection DVD boxset on Amazon.

Reviewed by Andrew Allen.