Murder by the Book: An Agatha Christie Drama

In the midst of World War Two Agatha Christie wrote the book Curtain, the final Hercule Poirot novel. This was the book that would complete the story of Hercule Poirot, and would see the end of the World’s greatest detective. (sorry Sherlock!). However, the book was not published at the time of writing. Instead,  Agatha kept it in a safe as a security for her family should anything happen to her during the war.

The book was eventually published until 1975, just 3 months before Agatha herself died. In the interim, Poirot went on to solve a great many more cases in books like After the Funeral, The Clocks and Dead Man’s Folly.

Murder By The Book

Murder by the Book | An Agatha Christie Drama is a wonderfully witty 1986 TV drama which looks at the circumstances of ‘Curtain’, and wonders what would happen if Poirot did not want to be killed off. It stars Dame Peggy Ashcroft as an elderly Agatha who has finally been persuaded to publish Curtain. On the night that she makes her decision she is visited by a very disgruntled Poirot, played impeccably by Ian Holm, who is angry, not only about being killed off, but by Agatha’s almost nonchalant attitude towards himself, her greatest creation. What follows is a cat and mouse night as Poirot attempts to steal and destroy the manuscript, and Agatha plots to kill Poirot, once and for all. It is an absolute joy.

What’s It Like?

I have only recently discovered the episode in full on YouTube, after reading about it in the  book Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World by Mark Aldridge.* I think this is a must watch for any Agatha fan. It is witty and clever, and it has great performances from the two leads. Ian Holm, in particular, shows a style that is uncannily similar to that later adopted by David Suchet in the ITV series.

The programme is clever in showing how Agatha did become ambivalent towards Poirot. She later much preferred Marple, and she was frustrated to have to put Poirot into stories that she really wanted to be standalone books. (Sad Cypress is cited as one example). Two films of Margaret Rutherford, which were originally Poirot stories, were changed to include Marple instead. (Poirot is both disgusted and indignant about this fact.) This is only a short piece (around 52 minutes) but it feels like no line is spared.

Highly recommended for any fans of Agatha, and Poirot in particular.

Sharing is caring!