The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
- Episode aired Jan 2, 2000
- TV-14
- 1h 39m
Poirot comes out of retirement when his industrialist friend is brutally murdered a short while after a local widow who was suspected of killing her husband commits suicide.Poirot comes out of retirement when his industrialist friend is brutally murdered a short while after a local widow who was suspected of killing her husband commits suicide.Poirot comes out of retirement when his industrialist friend is brutally murdered a short while after a local widow who was suspected of killing her husband commits suicide.
- Constable Jones
- (as Charles Early)
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen the doctor's sister is seen in the opening scenes she has on a blouse with intricate cutwork near the neck. The blouse is cream color and the cutwork a dark brown. The work is so beautiful it's memorable. In another Christie/Suchet episode, Cat Among the Pigeons, the headmistress of the school is shown wearing the same blouse.
- GoofsIn the scene where Ackroyd's butler, Parker, is drunk and staggering down the road, the car behind him stops. Visible for a brief instant is the car's license plate, COU 313. In the very next scene as the car begins its run, the license plate has changed to JHX 473.
- Quotes
[Last lines]
Hercule Poirot: I thought I could escape the wickedness of the city by moving to the country. The fields that are green, the singing of the birds, the faces, smiling and friendly. Huh! The fields that are green are the secret burial places of murders most hideous. The birds sing only briefly before some idiot in tweed shoots them. And the faces all smiling and friendly, what do they conceal?
- ConnectionsReferenced in Murder on the Orient Express (2001)
Unlike some on this board, I couldn't possibly remember some of the book details that were left out, but I knew something was missing. The book packed such a wallop, it was breathtaking.
This episode, alas, seemed ordinary to me.
Hercule Poirot has retired to King's Abbott and is working on growing marrow. When a friend of his, Roger Ackroyd, is found murdered in his home, Poirot looks into the case. Inspector Japp joins him, so the to old friends are reunited.
Just the day before, there had been the suicide of Mrs. Dorothy Ferrars. She was Roger's great love. Poirot begrudgingly is pulled further into the case, where he tries to figure out the motive as he sorts through suspects: a secretly married couple, Mrs. Ackroyd, etc.
From the beginning, Poirot reads a journal, the journal of the murderer. In the book, the story is narrated by someone else. Also, there is no second murder. Japp was not present; it was an antagonistic inspector. Poirot's actual Hastings in this story was Dr. Sheppard, who has a small role here.
What a shame -- of all the stories to wreck, this is the one they picked. I'm a little disappointed in the Christie estate. They sold these stories without any care of what would happen to them.
I loved Suchet, as always, and Japp.
- blanche-2
- Feb 12, 2015
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- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
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- Aspect ratio
- 16 : 9