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What changed on screen
What changed on screen, title by title: 77 in total. Tap a cover to open it. Titles you haven't marked as read stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- Behind the scenesA lesson in poisons
Christie wrote the book during World War I while working in a hospital dispensary. That's where she learned about poisons, and it shows in the crime.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe rewritten ending
In the first draft Poirot explained the case in a courtroom. Her publisher asked for a new ending, so Christie moved the reveal to a gathering in the drawing room, which became Poirot's trademark.
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- ReferenceThe rival from the Sûreté
Giraud of the French police scoffs at little grey cells and crawls around looking for footprints and cigarette ends. Poirot bets him over who'll crack the case first.
source ↗ - SetupHastings in love
Here Hastings falls for a young performer who calls herself Cinderella. That romance is why he drops out of several later cases.
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- Behind the scenesThe twist that split readers
The ending was accused of breaking the fair-play rules between author and reader. Today the book sits near the top of almost every best-mystery list.
source ↗ - ChangeJapp joins the case
In the book the police are Inspector Raglan, and Japp never shows up. The 2000 ITV episode puts Japp at Poirot's side and swaps the quiet ending for a chase.
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- Behind the scenesA book made of stories
The novel stitches together 12 stories that ran in The Sketch in 1924. Christie assembled it during a hard year, with help from her brother-in-law Campbell Christie.
source ↗ - ChangeNo twin brother
In the book Poirot invents a twin brother, Achille, to fool the villains. The 2013 ITV episode drops Achille and rewrites the plot as a much smaller conspiracy.
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- Behind the scenesThe book she disliked
Christie wrote it after her marriage fell apart in 1926 because she needed the money. In her autobiography she called it the book of hers she liked least.
source ↗ - ReferenceIt grew from a story
The plot reuses the idea of the story The Plymouth Express, where a woman is also killed on a train. That story is in Poirot's Early Cases.
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- Behind the scenesIt became a play
In 1940 the book was adapted for the stage by Arnold Ridley, the actor later known for the sitcom Dad's Army.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe full team
Hastings narrates and Japp turns up late: one of the cases with Poirot's classic crew together, far from London.
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- Behind the scenesThe impersonator
Carlotta Adams, the actress who mimics famous people, was inspired by American monologuist Ruth Draper, whose one-woman character pieces Christie admired.
source ↗ - ReferenceSuchet before Poirot
In the TV movie Thirteen at Dinner (1985), with Peter Ustinov as Poirot, David Suchet played Inspector Japp. Four years later he became Poirot himself on ITV.
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- Behind the scenesA real case behind it
The kidnapping of little Daisy Armstrong, which drives the story, was inspired by the 1932 kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby.
source ↗ - ChangeA tormented Poirot
In the book Poirot offers two solutions and calmly leaves the choice to others. In the 2010 ITV episode the decision tortures him, and he's seen praying with a rosary, his faith shaken.
source ↗ - ChangeIt opens in Jerusalem
Kenneth Branagh's 2017 film opens with Poirot solving a case at the Western Wall and adds action scenes the book doesn't have.
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- Behind the scenesTwo motives
The first American edition gave the killer a different, simpler motive than the British one. For years, readers on each side of the Atlantic read different endings.
source ↗ - ReferenceA guest from another series
Mr Satterthwaite, who helps Poirot here, comes from The Mysterious Mr Quin stories, another Christie creation.
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- ReferencePoirot the suspect
The blowpipe turns up behind Poirot's own seat, and the inquest jury almost points at him. He is not amused.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA different US title
In the US the book came out as Death in the Air. It's one of Christie's few cases set on a plane, still a novelty back then.
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- ReferenceHastings is back
Hastings comes back from Argentina for a visit and finds Poirot dealing with anonymous letters. He narrates, with extra chapters that show the killer's side.
source ↗ - ChangePoirot the former priest
The 2018 BBC miniseries with John Malkovich gives Poirot a past as a priest in Belgium, which the books never do.
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- Behind the scenesThe real dig
Christie met her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, at the dig at Ur. The victim was inspired by Katharine Woolley, wife of that expedition's leader.
source ↗ - ChangeHastings tags along
In the book nurse Amy Leatheran narrates, and Hastings is nowhere to be seen. The 2001 ITV episode brings Hastings to Iraq with Poirot.
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- ReferenceA detectives' summit
Besides Poirot, the table holds novelist Ariadne Oliver in her first case with him, Superintendent Battle from The Secret of Chimneys and Colonel Race from The Man in the Brown Suit.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA warning up front
In the foreword Christie warns that there are only four suspects and that the answer lies in their psychology, not in physical clues.
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- Behind the scenesFor Peter the dog
Bob, the terrier in the story, was based on Christie's own dog, Peter. The book is dedicated to him.
source ↗ - ChangeLakes and speedboats
The 1996 ITV episode moves the story to the Lake District and gives Hastings a speedboat record attempt that isn't in the book.
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- Behind the scenesHer own trip
Christie cruised the Nile in 1933 on the steamer Sudan, the same kind of boat as in the book. In 1944 she turned the story into a play without Poirot.
source ↗ - ChangeBouc and the blues
Branagh's 2022 film brings in Bouc, Poirot's friend from the Orient Express, and turns novelist Salome Otterbourne into a blues singer. Neither is like that in the book.
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- Behind the scenesThe real Petra
Christie visited Petra, in Jordan, on one of her trips with her archaeologist husband. The rose-red city becomes the crime scene.
source ↗ - ChangeA new ending on stage
When she adapted the book for the stage in 1945, Christie removed Poirot and changed the ending, with a different answer to the death.
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- Behind the scenesA request from her brother-in-law
Christie dedicated the book to her brother-in-law James Watts, who complained her murders were too tidy. He wanted a good violent one with lots of blood. He got it.
source ↗ - ChangeChristmas with Japp
In the book Poirot works with Colonel Johnson and Superintendent Sugden. The 1995 ITV episode adds Japp, escaping a family Christmas to help out.
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- Behind the scenesA Shakespeare title
The title comes from a song in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night about death and being laid in a cypress coffin.
source ↗ - ReferenceIt opens in court
The book opens with the accused hearing the charge, then jumps back in time. It's one of the few Poirot cases with courtroom scenes.
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- Behind the scenesNursery-rhyme chapters
Chapters follow the lines of the nursery rhyme. In the US the book was called The Patriotic Murders.
source ↗ - ReferenceFear of the dentist
The case starts with Poirot dreading a dental appointment, one of the rare times he seems like any other nervous patient.
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- Behind the scenesThe island hotel
The hotel was inspired by the Burgh Island Hotel in Devon, on an island cut off at high tide.
source ↗ - ChangeFrom Devon to the Med
The 1982 film with Peter Ustinov swaps the English coast for a Mediterranean island and was shot on Majorca.
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- Behind the scenesA play without Poirot
Christie adapted the book for the stage in 1960 as Go Back for Murder and cut Poirot out. In the US the novel came out as Murder in Retrospect.
source ↗ - ChangeAn extra love story
The 2003 ITV episode suggests Philip Blake was in love with the painter Amyas Crale, which the book never says.
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- Behind the scenesPoirot got in the way
Christie wrote in her autobiography that Poirot ruined this book and it would have been better without him. When she adapted it for the stage in 1951, she cut him.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe staged scene
Poirot arrives and thinks the scene by the pool is a prank by his hosts, it looks so theatrical. That impression becomes a clue.
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- Behind the scenesJulius Caesar
The title comes from Brutus's line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar about a tide in the affairs of men. In the US it came out as There Is a Tide.
source ↗ - ReferenceSpence's debut
Superintendent Spence makes his first appearance here. He comes back in later Poirot cases as the country policeman the detective trusts.
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- ReferenceOliver goes to the theatre
Ariadne Oliver is in town to adapt one of her Finnish detective Sven Hjerson books for the stage, and moans at every change. Christie was poking fun at her own adaptations.
source ↗ - ReferenceSpence asks for help
Superintendent Spence brings Poirot the case. He arrested the accused man and can't believe his own investigation.
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- Behind the scenesThe aunt's remark
The whole book hangs on one remark at the funeral: “But he was murdered, wasn't he?” In the US it came out as Funerals Are Fatal.
source ↗ - ChangeTurned into a Miss Marple case
The film Murder at the Gallop (1963) adapted the book but replaced Poirot with Miss Marple, played by Margaret Rutherford.
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- ReferenceMiss Lemon's sister
The case comes from Mrs Hubbard, sister of Poirot's secretary Miss Lemon. She runs the student hostel where it all happens.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesAnother nursery rhyme
The title comes from another English nursery rhyme, the one about the mouse running up the clock. In the US it was Hickory Dickory Death.
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- Behind the scenesChristie's own house
The estate in the book is modeled on Greenway, Christie's holiday home in Devon. The 2013 ITV episode was filmed there.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesWritten for a church
It began as the novella Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, written to help pay for a stained-glass window at the local church. Christie later expanded it.
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- Behind the scenesPoirot shows up late
Poirot doesn't enter until well past the halfway mark. Until then we follow the school's girls and teachers.
source ↗ - ChangePoirot from the start
The 2008 ITV episode puts Poirot at the school from the beginning, as a guest at a ceremony, instead of bringing him in after the crimes.
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- ReferenceBattle's son?
The narrator, Colin Lamb, is an agent who hints he's the son of Superintendent Battle from Cards on the Table and other books.
source ↗ - ChangeOn the eve of war
The book is set in the 1960s. The 2011 ITV episode moves it to 1939, with spying on the eve of World War II.
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- Behind the scenesPoirot in swinging London
At 75, Christie drops Poirot into 1960s London, with long-haired kids, drugs and shared flats.
source ↗ - ChangeBack to the 1930s
The 2008 ITV episode pulls the story out of the 1960s into the 1930s, like the rest of the series, swapping hippies for society youth.
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- Behind the scenesFor Wodehouse
Christie dedicated the book to P. G. Wodehouse, the creator of Jeeves, whom she admired.
source ↗ - ChangeFrom a village to Venice
Branagh's 2023 film uses the book as a starting point but moves everything to a Venetian palazzo, with a séance and a horror mood.
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- Behind the scenesThe last one she wrote
It was the last Poirot novel Christie wrote. In 2009, researchers used computers to study the vocabulary of her late books for signs of dementia.
source ↗ - ChangeAn extra case
The 2013 ITV episode adds a second, present-day murder to give Poirot more to do.
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- Behind the scenesLocked in a vault
Christie wrote it during World War II and locked it away to be published at the end of her career. It came out in 1975, months before she died.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA front-page obituary
When the book came out, The New York Times ran an obituary for Hercule Poirot on its front page, a rare honor for a fictional character.
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- Behind the scenesBorn in a magazine
The stories first ran in The Sketch in 1923. The 1925 American edition had three more stories than the British one.
source ↗ - ChangeCases spread across the show
ITV adapted almost every story as an hour-long episode in the early seasons, often adding Japp and Miss Lemon where the book had none.
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- Behind the scenesRecycled stories
Two of the four novellas expand older stories: The Incredible Theft grew from The Submarine Plans, and Dead Man's Mirror from The Second Gong.
source ↗ - ReferenceAll four were filmed
ITV adapted all four novellas across different seasons, and Murder in the Mews was the series' first episode, in 1989.
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- Behind the scenesTwelve labours
The stories ran in The Strand in 1939 and 1940. Each one plays on a labour of Hercules, from the Nemean Lion to Cerberus.
source ↗ - ChangeAll in a Swiss hotel
ITV's 2013 version merged several stories into one episode set in a Swiss Alpine hotel, with a darker tone than the book.
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- Behind the scenesA real Christmas
In the foreword Christie says the pudding story recalls her childhood Christmases at Abney Hall, her brother-in-law's family home.
source ↗ - ChangeThe stolen ruby
ITV adapted the title story in 1991 as The Theft of the Royal Ruby. The book also includes a Miss Marple case, Greenshaw's Folly.
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- ReferenceThe Belgian failure
In The Chocolate Box, Poirot tells Hastings about a case from his police days in Belgium and admits he got it wrong.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesLost stories
The 18 stories had appeared in magazines and US collections but never in a British book. The 1974 collection gathered them all.
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