'Three Act Tragedy' is quite an early Poirot novel and one of Christie's most artificial in that it (and its characters) are set out in the tradition of a theatrical entertainment and two of the lead characters are actors. To be honest, in my opinion its not one of her best. The cast of suspects are mostly two (or even one) dimensional and the motive for two of the murders are very difficult to swallow. Still, it has its bright points and one of these is humour, particularly in the leading character of Sir Charles Cartwright - very much an Actor who plays various roles in 'real life' and tires quickly of them whether its as a sailor or a detective.
This new adaptation of the novel from the established 'Suchet as Poirot' stable retains much of this humour and I was very impressed with Martin Shaw's assumption of the role of Sir Charles. Here he is a friend of Poirots (the character of Mr Satterthwaite having been cut) who is personally involved from the outset. The production goes in for a few 'thirties touches' such as whirling newspapers and racing train journeys but I didn't mind them and felt they added appropriately to the atmosphere. The story was generally very faithful, it looked wonderful as always and was well acted on the whole. I particularly enjoyed Kimberley Nixon as Egg and Kate Ashfield who was quite perfect as the perceptive Miss Wills. It was a pity that such performers as Anna Carteret and Jane Asher didn't get more to do, as what they DID do was very good but then their roles in the book are very small.
I enjoyed this and hopefully it bodes well for the new season of Poirot.
This new adaptation of the novel from the established 'Suchet as Poirot' stable retains much of this humour and I was very impressed with Martin Shaw's assumption of the role of Sir Charles. Here he is a friend of Poirots (the character of Mr Satterthwaite having been cut) who is personally involved from the outset. The production goes in for a few 'thirties touches' such as whirling newspapers and racing train journeys but I didn't mind them and felt they added appropriately to the atmosphere. The story was generally very faithful, it looked wonderful as always and was well acted on the whole. I particularly enjoyed Kimberley Nixon as Egg and Kate Ashfield who was quite perfect as the perceptive Miss Wills. It was a pity that such performers as Anna Carteret and Jane Asher didn't get more to do, as what they DID do was very good but then their roles in the book are very small.
I enjoyed this and hopefully it bodes well for the new season of Poirot.