The Theft of the Royal Ruby

It's Christmas time. A priceless ruby is stolen from a visiting Egyptian prince. The British Foreign Office, eager to maintain cordial diplomatic ties with Egypt, enlist the help of Hercule Poirot in finding the ruby and its thief. In order to investigate the theft, Poirot visits Colonel Lacey, a foremost Egyptologist. Poirot ends up spending a few days at Colonel Lacey's estate. On Christmas Day, much to Poirot's surprise, the ruby turns up in a plum pudding...

Short and sweet - one of the shortest Poirot episodes, but it packs a fair bit in. The theft is intriguing, though the plot gets a bit contrived and unconvincing with the reappearance of the ruby. A tad far-fetched and schemes for the sake of schemes after that.

Still, reasonably interesting and entertaining.

A Christie story which is not unlike Conan Doyle' s style (the king of Bohemia affair) .Here Poirot has got to help an arrogant spoiled Arabian prince to recover an invaluable ruby (and catch the thief too) .The plot takes to us to the de rigueur (modern this time) desirable mansion where the suspects stay.And as it is Christmas,they are making plum pudding in the kitchen:one for Xmas meal and another one for new year's day.And would you believe it? Poirot finds a precious stone in his pudding.But didn't someone warn him? Do not eat any pudding!Anyway,we are told -and it was not the first time-that he likes chocolates best .

As sweet as Christmas pudding.

An enjoyable, unusual and festive mystery. It's a bit obvious with too many coincidences as other reviewers have said but the unusual way Hastings, Lemon and Jupp don't appear and the fact that it's a theft mystery rather than a murder one make it memorable. Some endearing scenes and dialogue, along with the fact that I learnt a new word ('Lucullan', meaning 'gourmet' or 'lavish'), means that this programme merits a score of 8 out of 10

In her original story, Agatha Christie created a fictional prince from a fictional country. However, because it seemed likely she was alluding to Prince Farouk of Egypt AND because he was an unpleasant and spoiled man-child, the show decided to use the real Prince's name.

When the story begins, Prince Farouk is at dinner with a blonde woman. She leaves ostensibly to use the loo, but instead she flees with the Prince's valuable ruby.

Soon after, a representative from the British government contacted Poirot about locating the stolen gem. When Poirot learns WHO lost the gem, he has no interest as he thought the Prince was a jerk...something you see the Prince demonstrate repeatedly. However, because of patriotism to the British government, he reluctantly agrees to help.

The trail leads to a family, though which one is responsible for the theft is uncertain. To investigate 'on the sly', he agrees to spend his Christmas with this nice family. Ultimately, of course, Poirot is able to find the gem...but the Prince is NOT happy. He demands to have the perpetrators arrested...so Poirot is forced to continue his investigations....reluctantly.

Overall, this is a very good episode with several wonderful moments. And, by the way, the real life Farouk was a most unwise playboy of a king...and was eventually deposed because of this ineptitude.

I have always been a big Agatha Christie and Poirot fan, so naturally I do love the Poirot ITV series. The Theft of the Royal Ruby is not one of the jewels of the series(After the Funeral, Sad Cypress, Five Little Pigs and Wasp's Nest) but hardly one of the bad eggs either(in fact none of them are actually terrible as such, but there have been three or four disappointments like Taken at the Flood, Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Adventure of Johnnie Waverly and Cards at the Table). I do agree that in regards to the story there are far more ingenious entries to the series, the story here doesn't hold that many surprises in regard to the perpetrator's identity and there seems to be a lot of coincidence also. However, the adaptation is very sumptuously made, as ever elegant and evocative with lots of attention to detail, and the music is of the hauntingly beautiful quality you'd expect. The dialogue has many droll and intelligent moments, and the acting is very good with David Suchet as always impeccable as Poirot. But what also made the episode worth watching was its sense of warmth and atmosphere for the Christmas season, it does have a likable and heart-warming feel to it which I loved. In conclusion, not one of the best but worth watching all the same. 8/10 Bethany Cox