Poirot: Series 11 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Poirot: Series 11 Blu-ray Movie Review

"Where there is murder, anything can happen."

Reviewed by Michael Reuben February 28, 2014

With the publication of Series 11 of Poirot, Acorn Media has caught up to the present, having previously released Series 12 in separate parts as Murder on the Orient Express and Poirot: Movie Collection Set 6. (A reissue as a single set in broadcast order is scheduled for May 6.) All that remains is the final set of feature-length episodes, Series 13, which has been shown in the U.K. but has yet to be broadcast on Masterpiece Mystery in America.

Series 11 marked the end of the participation of the A&E Network and the entry of WGBH, the Boston PBS station, as co-producer. However, the show's creative trajectory remained unchanged, with sufficient continuity among the creative team to retain the style established in Series 9 and 10. As the departures from Agatha Christie's novels became more pronounced, star David Suchet was pressed into service to reassure fans that the changes were not being made lightly. For an example, see the "production notes" included in this set as an extra to Appointment with Death.

Fans had to wait almost two and half years after Series 10 concluded in April 2006 before Hercule Poirot reappeared on British TV screens. The first three adventures of Series 11 were spread over three weeks in September 2008, but the concluding episode, the lavish and star-studded Appointment with Death, was held for over a year until Christmas Day 2009.

Mrs. McGinty's Dead (disc 1) (first broadcast: Sept. 14, 2008, U.K.)

In the village of Broadhinny, an elderly charwoman named Abigail McGinty is murdered in her home, and her lodger, James Bentley (Joe Absolom), is convicted of the crime and sentenced to hang. The case is straightforward, but Superintendent Spence (Richard Hope), who met Poirot in Taken at the Flood, cannot escape a nagging doubt that Bentley is innocent. He asks Poirot to reexamine the case, and Poirot find himself uncomfortably ensconced in the tumbledown lodgings of Major and Maureen Summerhayes (Richard Dillane and Raquel Cassidy) while he makes inquiries.

An old friend appears in Broadhinny. Crime novelist Ariadne Oliver (Zoë Wanamaker) drives up from London to visit local playwright Robin Upward (Paul Rhys), who lives with his aged mother (Siân Phillips). Upward is helping Mrs. Oliver transform her latest detective story into a play.

Poirot quickly focuses on an article in the local paper that Mrs. McGinty cut out several days before her death. The article concerned women connected to notorious local murders from years past and featured two photographs. Surmising that Mrs. McGinty must have recognized someone from one of the pictures, Poirot obtains copies and begins searching for either the women or their children. His inquiries are clearly relevant, because one person who claims to recognize a photograph is murdered shortly after speaking with Poirot, and Poirot himself nearly suffers a fatal "accident" at the train station. He is inordinately pleased about the incident, because it means he is making progress. ("Superintendent? I have some very good news for you", Poirot tells Spence. "It is that someone has attempted to kill me!")

But time is running out. With James Bentley's execution date fast approaching, Poirot has limited time to unravel the mystery of what Mrs. McGinty knew that made her such a threat to someone in Broadhinny.


Cat Among the Pigeons (disc 1) (first broadcast: Sept. 21, 2008, U.K.)

The Meadowbank School for Girls is a renowned facility run by Poirot's old friend Miss Bulstrode (Harriet Walter). Poirot arrives at the beginning of the new term to present a sports award, then stays to solve a murder.

A new pupil is the Princess Shaista (Amara Karan), next in line to the throne of Ramat, a Middle Eastern country that has recently experienced a violent revolution resulting in the death of the princess' cousin, Prince Ali, and an Englishman, Bob Rawlinson (Adam De Ville), assigned to protect him. When Meadowbank's gym teacher, Miss Springer (Elizabeth Berrington), is found impaled by a javelin, the Princess insists that she was the intended victim.

For Poirot, however, the matter is not so simple. The victim was widely disliked among the school's faculty for her bullying manner and her habit of tormenting colleagues about embarrassing personal secrets, of which there appear to be many at Meadowbank. Even Miss Bulstrode's new secretary, Ann Shapland (Natasha Little), has family matters she would much prefer remain private. Poirot is also aware of Miss Bulstrode's impending retirement and the barely concealed competition among the faculty to become her successor. The logical candidate would be Miss Chadwick (Susan Wooldridge), who co-founded Meadowbank with Miss Bulstrode and has devoted her life to it, but Miss Bulstrode is inclined to choose someone younger and more vigorous—perhaps someone like Miss Rich (Claire Skinner), who was a special target of the late gym teacher, Miss Springer.

Adding to the mystery is an incident that Poirot recalls from a reception on the day of his arrival, when a visiting parent, Mrs. Upjohn (Pippa Haywood), was startled to see a face in the crowd, someone she seemed to recognize but whom she thought had died long ago. Unfortunately, by the time Miss Springer is murdered, Mrs. Upjohn has left the country on holiday, and the local authorities, in the person of Inspector Kelsey (Anton Lesser, The Hour), are unable to find her. Then there's the new gardener, Adam Goodman (Adam Croasdell), who seems far too educated for his station. He's clearly not who he says he is.

By the time Poirot unravels the mystery, which also involves a pair of swapped tennis rackets, another murder has occurred, a third has been attempted, and someone has been kidnapped. A cat has certainly been set among the pigeons, but for what purpose?




Third Girl (disc 2) (first broadcast: Sept. 28, 2008, U.K.)

A distraught young woman, Norma Restarick (Jemima Rooper), appears at Poirot's door begging him to save her. Before Poirot can do anything, she runs away. It transpires that Norma was sent to Poirot by Ariadne Oliver, who occupies the apartment below the one that Norma shares with two roommates. Norma, being the last to respond to an advertisement seeking others to share the rent, is known as the "third girl".

While Poirot is visiting Mrs. Oliver, who explains the situation, the police arrive in response to a reported death at the building, an apparent suicide by another resident known as "Nanny" Seagram (Caroline O'Neill). By an extraordinary coincidence (or not), the dead woman turns out to have been Norma Restarick's nanny when she was a little girl. An autopsy report confirms that she was murdered.

Norma Restarick's life has been marked by tragedy. Her father, Andrew (James Wilby), left her and her mother when she was a child to travel the world and has only recently returned to England to take over his late brother's business. Norma's mother committed suicide shortly thereafter, and Norma has never fully recovered from the shock. Her favorite uncle, Sir Roderick Horsfield (Peter Bowles), has turned all his attention to his secretary, a much younger woman named Sonia (Lucy Liemann), so that Norma no longer feels welcome in the country manor she called home. That is how she came to be the "third girl" in an apartment where the first girl just happens to be her newly returned father's business assistant, Claudia Reece-Holland (Clemency Burton-Hill). The only bright spot in Norma's life is a handsome young artist named David Baker (Tom Mison). Mrs. Oliver calls him "the peacock", and unfortunately for Norman, he seems to have some sort of special relationship with the second girl in Norma's apartment, Frances Cary (Matilda Sturridge).

Poirot's heart always goes out to an innocent in trouble, and he senses immediately that Norma Restarick is a victim of something, possibly many things. His suspicions are confirmed when Mrs. Oliver is attacked, and the contents of her purse stolen, immediately after she has discovered a vital piece of evidence. But for Hercule Poirot, the very attempt to conceal evidence yields vital clues.


Appointment with Death (disc 2) (first broadcast: Dec. 25, 2009, U.K.)

In scale and complexity, Appointment with Death is the centerpiece of this set. The location may be an archaeological dig in Syria rather than Egypt, but the presence of Paul Freeman, who played the evil René Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and of John Hannah, who was Jonathan Carnahan in three Mummy films, summons mystical associations that fit perfectly with the ominous legends swirling through the plot.

A British archaeologist, Lord Boynton (Tim Curry), has spent his life chasing ancient tales about the place where the head of John the Baptist is buried. His latest excavation is his most promising to date. On one of his many Middle Eastern vacations, Poirot undertakes the arduous journey to visit Lord Boynton's site and, as he so often does, finds himself in a company bristling with conflicts and secrets.

Lord Boynton's wife, Lady Boynton (Cheryl Campbell), is a wealthy American, a terror both on Wall Street and to her three adult children: Jinny (Zoe Boyle), Raymond (Tom Riley) and Carol (Emma Cunniffe). They are terrified by her every word, and Raymond speaks openly to Jinny of his desire to kill their mother. Their long-time servant, Nanny Taylor (Angela Pleasance), travels with them, says little and has the look of a walking corpse. The family group is met in Syria by Lord Boynton's son from his first marriage, Leonard (Mark Gatiss, Mycroft Holmes on Sherlock), who despises his stepmother from the bottom of his heart.

A young American doctor on holiday, Sarah King (Christina Cole), takes an instant liking to Raymond Boynton, but he's too afraid of his gargoyle of a mother to reciprocate Sarah's interest (or even give his name). Yet another doctor, Theodore Gerard (Hannah), is acquainted with Poirot from a former case in Edinburgh. A Polish nun, Sister Agnieszka (Beth Goddard), has made the pilgrimage in the hope of seeing and blessing the mortal remains of the great Baptist. And an American businessman with interests in Lady Boynton's company, Jefferson Cope (Christian McKay), arrived with Leonard Boynton, flashing his money in the showy fashion for which Americans are well-known.

As if this cast of characters weren't enough, yet one more joins them en route to Lord Boynton's massive dig. She is Dame Celia Westholme (Elizabeth McGovern), a famous explorer and travel writer, who makes a grand entrance riding a camel.

Far too many people despise Lady Boynton for any viewer to be surprised when she turns up dead, but the circumstances are mysterious and nearly everyone has an airtight alibi. Matters are further complicated by the perfectly timed arrival of Poirot's acquaintance, Col. Carbury (Freeman), who could not possibly have received news of the murder and so, as Poirot surmises, must be there on other business.

As Poirot himself comments, this particular case is unusually loaded with red herrings. Money, jealousy, religion, sex and old-fashioned rage are all part of the mix. Only the world's greatest detective could hope to untangle them.

A noteworthy element of Appointment with Death is the stress on Poirot's Catholic faith, the benefits of which he commends to a victim of mistreatment at the conclusion of the story. This theme already appeared in Taken at the Flood in Series 10 and will reemerge with renewed force in the adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express in Series 12.

Poirot: Series 11 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As with Series 10, the video quality of Series 11 is somewhat inconsistent. The first episode, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, is particularly weak, especially in the first half, due to significant video noise, sometimes transforming what should be solid surfaces into fields of vibrating pixels. The cause of the problem is difficult to determine; judging from comments at IMDb dating from the episode's initial broadcast, it may be inherent in the source. Fortunately, the problem recedes as the episode progresses, appears in only minor form in Cat Among the Pigeons and Third Girl and is wholly absent from Appointment with Death. (Definitive information about the shooting format was not available, but the cinematographers were Alan Almond, Cinders Forshaw, Paul Bond and Peter Greenhalgh, all veterans of British TV and all except Bond regulars of the Agatha Christie adaptations.)

Except for this weakness, which isn't a distraction except in the first episode of the series, the image quality of Series 11 is quite good, with solid blacks, finely resolved detail and nicely saturated colors. The standout is Peter Greenhalgh's location photography (with Morocco standing in for Syria) for Appointment with Death, which features stunning desert vistas, some of which have no doubt been enhanced with CG trickery, but they wouldn't look so impressive without excellent original plates. The more traditional apartments and drawing rooms of Third Girl and the more spartan surroundings of Cat Among the Pigeons are also shown to good advantage.

Poirot: Series 11 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 remains Acorn Media's audio standard for Poirot, and the stereo sound mixes for these four episodes are consistent with prior episodes under the new regime. Dialogue still retains priority, but the sound mixers take every opportunity in Appointment with Death to add something interesting, including the sounds of Lord Boynton's large crew working on his dig, the rumble and clattering of the uncomfortable trucks in which Poirot and the others must travel for hours to reach the dig site, and several flashback and dream sequences involving frightful experiences of which key sonic details are specifically emphasized. Stephen McKeon (Primeval) continues his scoring labors from Series 10, and he keeps finding new variations on the famous Poirot theme, as well as supplying musical accompaniment that ranges from the urgent to the sinister to the mystical.

Poirot: Series 11 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra included with Series 11 is a brief set of "production notes" on Appointment with Death, which are text screens with quotations from David Suchet and Tim Curry on the experience of making the episode. Also, at startup, disc 1 plays trailers for Jack Irish, The Fall and Acorn Media, which can skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Poirot: Series 11 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The four episodes of Poirot in Series 11 are excellent, and, except for the video issues noted above, have been capably presented. It is unfortunate that no behind-the-scenes extras were included such as appeared on Series 10, since promotional material of this type is routinely created for any long-running show on British television. Still, it's the show itself that counts. Highly recommended, while we await the final episodes.