Christie Papers

When new articles and information are added to the site we'll give you a taster here ...

Login or Register to post a comment

TV ADAPTATION REVIEW: POIROT­– THE CLOCKS

29 Jun 11 9:47AM

TV ADAPTATION REVIEW: POIROT­– THE CLOCKS

By Chris Chan

(MINOR SPOILERS!  READ WITH CAUTION!)

Two of the three episodes of the twelfth season of Poirot have aired now in the U.S., and the news is partially good.  The remaining part of the news is indisputably great.  The Clocks is one of the best Poirot movies in recent years, and is perhaps the first episode where nearly every significant change to the original source material works brilliantly.

I have enjoyed and appreciated all of the Poirot novels to varying extents, but The Clocks is probably my least favorite Poirot novel, although I still liked it.  Part of this is connected to the comparably small role that Poirot plays in this story, as well as the fact that some of the plot points turn out to be disappointments, such as the fact that the title objects are essentially red herrings, and there is no real payoff for their presence.  

Stewart Harcourt’s screenplay does a superlative job of streamlining the story and patching up the plot holes.  Maintaining the series’ creative decision to keep the adaptations in the pre-WWII era, the Cold War espionage subplot is seamlessly transplanted to the earlier time, and the investigation hinges on determining who is leaking vital British security information to the Nazis.  The narrator of the original novel is the secret agent Colin Lamb.  This is not his real name– Colin is forced to adopt a pseudonym for his line of work, but throughout the novel little hints are dropped (such as that Colin’s father is a police superintendent and a friend of Poirot’s, that Colin has multiple siblings, and several other clues), all pointing to the conclusion that Colin is Superintendent Battle’s son.  However, Battle has never appeared in the television series (his character in Cards on the Table was swapped out for a different police officer with a predilection for posing in embarrassing photographs), so Harcourt made the rather sensible decision to drop the pseudonym and make Colin (Tom Burke) the son of Colonel Race, who did appear in Death on the Nile, even though his character was also dropped from Cards on the Table due to the actor’s unavailability.

Other alterations are all positive.  The titular objects now serve a distinct purpose.  The addition of a secret affair, which has been a blotch on several other recent adaptations, works to advance the plot here.  Revelations of anti-Semitism and reasons for espionage are incorporated well into the dialogue.  A revelation of secret parentage has been deleted.  The omission is no great loss, especially when considering that a few tacked-on plot points of the same type have been added to poor effect.  The romantic backstories of Colin and Sheila Webb (Jaime Winstone) actually add to the mystery, rather than distract.

The Clocks manages to capture the spirit of the older episodes of the series, which managed to mix sparkling humor with serious themes.  Some of the best moments in this episode come from Poirot’s friction with Inspector Hardcastle (Phil Daniels), as the men clash over potables, investigation tactics, and appreciation of mystery writers.  The rest of the cast is also quite good, particularly Anna Massey as the blind photographer’s assistant Miss Pebmarsh.  Ms. Massey, incidentally, played Agatha Christie herself in Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures.  David Suchet, who has never given anything less than a top-notch performance, seems to be reinvigorated in this episode.  He has eschewed his rather darker approach to the great detective here, and he now has a renewed twinkle in his eye, a slowness to anger, and an unflagging enthusiasm to investigate.

The Clocks is a complete triumph.  It manages to combine the gentle touch of the early episodes of the series with the darker stylistic direction of the later episodes, and the result is above reproach.

• 3 comments

Comment on this story

Login or Register to post a comment

3 comments

cheryl_k 21 Jul 11 at 6:12p.m.

I was disappointed the TV adaptation of The Clocks did not follow the book more closely. In fact, that has been my major complaint in all the latest Agatha Christie adaptations on PBS. The Clocks works well as Christie wrote it so I am dumbfounded as to why changes are made that complicate and take away from the original story. As someone who read the book, I would like to see the production closely follow that text. I am disappointed and annoyed by new character and plot introductions. The introduction of the subplot that resulted in several changes throughout the story made me angry. Miss Pebmarsh working for a photographer? Poirot investigating the case? Seriously, would Poirot be in the cat woman's house putting up with all those furry felines running around? I think not. It's not the way it was written!
And, in Cards on the Table to change the Inspector and to have the disparaging photos come up at the end was idiotic and embarassing. That detracted from the original story and I kept saying to my mom as we watched it together, "that wasn't in the book!".
I have disliked every adaptation so far because of the variances from the storylines. I think they are an injustice to the author and a disservice to those who have not read the books because they cannot appreciate Christie's story how she wrote it.

S_Sigerson 11 Jul 11 at 7:44p.m.

This secret affair did nothing to advance the plot because Sheila Webb would not have murdered someone to keep it a secret. Neither she nor the man was married. There is no credible motive. So how did it advance the plot? If anything it hurt the adaptation given the 90 minute format. There is not time for personal backstories that are not relevant to the plot.

There were several scenes shot at Dover Castle which are a waste of time especially considering this is Poirot and not an episode of Foyle's War. One scene in particular comes to mind, when the Vice Admiral and Colin are standing looking out over Dover harbor, as being totally irrelevant unless the Vice Admiral popped around to Wilbraham Crescent to knock off the victim. As a viewer trying to figure who the guilty party is, I don't need to see battleships anchored in the Dover harbor while they're discussing the coming war with Germany. What I care about are the suspects involved in the murder investigation.

Story begins in a secret military base under Dover Castle, followed by two women (one of whom was a spy) getting hit by a truck. I prefer the scene from the book where Colin Lamb is walking along Wilbraham Crescent and a young woman runs screaming out of a house and bumps into him, a perfect way to start off a murder mystery. From there the action builds. Slowly the mystery unfolds in front us. Police are called in and Colin pays a visit to a friend. Chapter 14 in the book is hilarious. Colin visits Poirot at his flat and finds the detective surrounded by detective novels musing about other detectives and in particular his friend Mrs. Oliver. We learn Colin is a secret agent working for the government trying to root out a spy ring and needs Poiot's help to figure out if this murder has anything to do with the spy ring. To see Poirot surrounded by detective novels discussing their merits would indeed be a most funny scene and worthy of being incorporated into the television adaptation. What's funny about Poirot sitting in a pub with an Inspector being offered a pint or whinging about his accommodations which we have seen before in Mrs. McGinty's Dead or being constantly berated and insulted by this same inspector throughout the entire mystery? Yes, the earlier episodes did have a lot of humor; however, it was not at the expense of others and done in a right way that was not offensive. I found nothing amusing about Inspector Hardcastle.

Miss. Pebmarsh (who is blind) working for a photographer as a secretary/receptionist/assistant is ludicrous. Even more ludicrous is to have her be the one to take photographs of the secret military documents. In the book Miss. Pebmarsh works for a braille institute for children. The secret documents are smuggled out of England by a microdot in braille books which makes sense and something Miss. Pebmarsh could do.

S_Sigerson 11 Jul 11 at 7:43p.m.

It wasn’t necessary for us to know who Colin Lamb’s father is. Poirot knows a lot of people. Being a secret agent it makes more sense for Colin to use an alias especially if his father is well known.

In the book the clocks (at least one) did serve a purpose to misdirect people into thinking Shelia Webb was involved in the crime. There was no need to elaborate any further with a ridiculous secret love affair between an unmarried man and woman.

The Clocks was drastically altered from the book, yet where is the moral outrage about changing Agatha Christie. In your open letter to the Christie Estate in 2006 you mentioned your dislike of violence in the recent television adaptations, yet you hold this adaptation in such high esteem although there is one particularly violent and graphic scene were two women bounce off the front of a truck and are killed. I don’t recall in any previous television adaptations of Poirot or Miss. Marple of having such a violent and extremely graphic scene. To my mind this was a first in the 20+ years of Poirot.

http://gilbertmagazine.com/page_13.html


Those embarrassing photographs you spoke of in Cards on the Table would have at the very least cost Inspector Wheeler his job and possibly even resulted in a criminal prosecution for homosexual relations. This is the 1930’, an excellent motive for murder. To say they are embarrassing photographs is nothing more than a value judgment, highly subjective and totally pointless when discussing the pros and cons of a murder mystery. I might add a mystery that was meant to entertain us; not be used as a primer on the proper way to live a good and righteous life.

Cards on the Table is by far a better television adaptation compared to The Clocks. Cards on the Table is one of the best adaptations of the entire series.