18. Poirot: Still Alive

Some British detective dramas seem to have lost their charm and vitality in the course of more than a decade-long run. One cannot avoid thinking about Midsomer Murders here, which is now a poor reflection of what it used to be ten years ago. Aging is clearly not a problem for Agatha Christie's Poirot, the newest episode of which, Murder on the Orient Express, premiered in the United States on July 11.

Although the value of every adaptation can be assessed on the basis of the comparison to the original work only, in this case, to the Agatha Christie's 1934 novel, these adaptations have several qualities on their own. Of course, Murder on the Orient Express has been one of the most popular Poirot stories, and its conclusion, which reveals that instead of one suspect all twelve are guilty of the murder, remains stunning in any faithful adaptation in any medium. The particular value of the Poirot episode has first a lot to do with its cast. David Suchet, though visibly older than in 1989, when the series began, is still brilliantly convincing in his portrayal of the Belgian detective, and even now we regularly find the names of veteran actors and actresses in the show's cast list (in this episode, Eileen Atkins's role as Princess Dragomiroff is particularly noteworthy). The way the visual narrative uncovers the real identity of the victim - an Italian mafioso who had kidnapped and killed a three-year-old girl -, the murder of whom is later revealed by Poirot to be a revenge by the party of twelve, reminded me of the way convicted killers are normally presented in newspaper articles and books about the cruellest murderers ever. The actor really looks like a perverted criminal, and his portrayal, thus, affects the way we evaluate Poirot's dilemma at the end of the episode - whether or not to reveal the facts concerning the murder to the police. Poirot's inner struggle about such a Robin Hood-like treatment of justice - it is revealed that Poirot is a devout Catholic - is, compared to the novel, more highlighted here, and the way he is distanced from his positivist worldview and shown as a vulnerable human being makes this episode stand out.

What makes Murder on the Orient Express an episode especially close to me is its mise-en-scène. The train, on which the murder and the investigation take place, is at one point depicted as having stopped due to a snowstorm somewhere in the Balkans, and these frames reminded me of a similar scene in Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. The similarity was so strong that it forced me to light candles, turn on Russian Orthodox music when writing this article, and imagine that it is snowing outside. Furthermore, the direct reference to a train in the title (titles like Shanghai Express, Chungking Express, 4.50 from Paddington, etc. always arise my interest beforehand for some reason) alongside with the fact that the events of the plot take place in the context of the pre-war British colonialism is an additional merit.

All these features made me recollect the time when Sunday night was the high peak of my week. The Estonian national television station aired shows like Poirot, Marple, Midsomer Murders, and Wire in the Blood then, and I always celebrated it with a good old English tea and a specially baked bara brith. These characteristics also forced me to reconsider my view that, today, good television is only made in the USA.