Agatha Christie: Poirot: Season 11, Episode 1 Mrs McGinty's Dead
(14 Sep. 2008)
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Agatha Christie: Poirot: Season 11, Episode 1 Mrs McGinty's Dead
(14 Sep. 2008)
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| Episode cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| David Suchet | ... | ||
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Joe Absolom | ... |
James Bentley
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Simon Molloy | ... |
District Judge
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| Richard Hope | ... | ||
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David Yelland | ... | |
| Sarah Smart | ... |
Maude
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Raquel Cassidy | ... |
Maureen Summerhayes
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| Richard Dillane | ... |
Major Summerhayes
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| Simon Shepherd | ... |
Dr Rendell
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Emma Amos | ... |
Bessie Burch
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Billy Geraghty | ... |
Joe Burch
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Ruth Gemmell | ... |
Miss Sweetiman
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| Mary Stockley | ... |
Eve Carpenter
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| Zoë Wanamaker | ... | ||
| Paul Rhys | ... |
Robin Upward
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James Bentley is tried for the murder of Abigail McGinty, the charwoman of Broadhinny who also took in Bentley as her lodger. The evidence is overwhelming, and soon after he is sentenced to hang. Superintendent Spence is not convinced of the man's guilt, and so he visits Poirot, asking him to look into the case. Poirot then heads off to the village, where he becomes the paying guest of Maureen and Major Johnnie Summerhayes. Ariadne Oliver, Poirot's novelist friend, has also come to Broadhinny to collaborate on a stage adaptation of one of her novels with dramatist Robin Upward. With the clue of a bottle of ink purchased by the dead woman shortly before her death, Poirot searches Mrs. McGinty's belongings and finds an edition of The Sunday Comet newspaper, where an article concerning two women connected with famous murders has been cut out. With the story are two photographs of the women. Poirot discovers that Mrs. McGinty had seen one of the photographs before, and knew to whom it ... Written by shanty_sleuth
The most recent POIROT films have a bad habit of behaving like MARPLE: rewriting novels until they are completely unrecognizable. Happily, MRS. McGINTY'S DEAD does NOT follow that trend. I Only noticed two changes from the original novel, and one of them is not really that major! The plot, like the original novel, started out as a simple murder, but what seemed like an open-and-shut case evolves into a complex mystery. I appreciated seeing the same Superintedant Spence from TAKEN AT THE FLOOD reprise his role here. And of course, Zoe Wanamaker is even better in McGINTY than she was in CARDS ON THE TABLE! She has so many humorous lines now, many of them coming during arguments with Robin Upward, a young playwright who is adapting a book of hers for the stage. And of course, as always, David Suchet simply shines as Poirot.