8 ms·

For fans of film, essentially all of Agatha Christie's mysteries featuring the Belgian detective character Hercule Poirot have been adapted by ITV into a fantas

For fans of film, essentially all of Agatha Christie's mysteries featuring the Belgian detective character Hercule Poirot have been adapted by ITV into a fantastic TV series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie's_Poirot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie's_Poirot I find it fascinating that they did this series over a span of over 24 years, with the same lead actor (David Suchet, CBE) as Hercule Poirot throughout! There is a behind the scenes interview with David Suchet reflecting upon the 24 year experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX3ITew9Mpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX3ITew9Mpw "And Then There Were None", which is one of Christie's most famous works not featuring Poirot, has been adapted by the BBC recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None_(miniseries) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None_(mini....

lobster_johnson 9y ago
I think the Poirot series is superb, but some of them suffer from stretching the runtime -- the best ones are about 51 minutes long, whereas the longer ones (which includes all of the last few seasons) click in at 1 hour and 29 minutes, some of which are based on short stories, not novels. As delightful as Poirot and his mysteries are, these are also admittedly somewhat shallow, implausible puzzles that rely on acting and cozy English nostalgia to entertain, not deep characterization or touching character arcs. Stretched to two hours, there's often not enough meat to hold one's attention. David Suchet is a national treasure, though. I wish he would be in more movies and shows.
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  > the longer ones (which includes all of the last few seasons) click in at 1 hour and 29 minutes, some of which are based on short stories, not novels. What matters is how much content there is in the episode. People have gotten the idea from Peter Jackson's awful, awful Hobbit movies that pages of source material are a restriction on how much movie you can make. But the problem there was that the movies were terrible, not that The Hobbit was shorter than a three-book series. Shrek is a 90 minute movie based off of a children's book of just 1,150 words. Nobody ever complained about the quality of Shrek.
  - mathattack 9y ago
    After rereading the Hobbit, I wanted someone to arrest Peter Jackson for vandalism. It was such an awesome reread!
  - oldandtired 9y ago
    A personal question to you: Why and in what particular ways do you consider Peter Jackson's renditions of the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to be so awful, awful? I have enjoyed by stories since I first came across them 40 years ago. I thought that Peter Jackson did an excellent job on retelling the story. In point of fact, retelling it in a way that keeps the essence but is a new variation. When I first obtained my copy of Lord of the Rings (which I still have), I read it 11 times in 8 months. I still read it when I get the urge. I have found that Peter Jackson has quite a different imaging of the story of the story compared to my own imagining and no less entertaining. I have had people complain about the "licence" he took in the retelling, about not being true to the original writing. However, a good story teller will add to and change a story to make it more effective for his telling. That is the essence of good story telling - how you choose to emphasise various elements.
    - thaumasiotes 9y ago
      > Why and in what particular ways do you consider Peter Jackson's renditions of the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to be so awful, awful? A question to you: when did I say anything about The Lord of the Rings?
      - oldandtired 9y ago
        Because Lord of the Rings is no less one of the Hobbit movies.
        thaumasiotes 9y ago
        You're staking out some pretty strange territory, if you think it's wrong to refer to the movies based on The Hobbit as "the Hobbit movies". The Lord of the Rings movies are not the Hobbit movies at all, not being related to The Hobbit.
- sg0 9y ago
  I was just seeing "The Falcon and the Snowman" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087231/?ref_=nv_sr_1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087231/?ref_=nv_sr_1) on Hulu, where David Suchet plays the wily Russian agent Alex (his father's side of family is originally from Russia, however in that movie his accent sounded quite British to me).
barking 9y ago
I remember being into watching these when they came out first. And then wondering in later years how they were still current while Suchet wasn't aging.
Arn_Thor 9y ago
I grew up watching this series and treasure it dearly! To me it is the product of TV in its heyday. Based on a solid foundation, not explicit or overly dramatic to lure viewers, intelligent and family friendly (thanks to the source material) and lovingly produced. I cannot count how many times I've seen it, and I look forward to share it with any future family I may have
stevekemp 9y ago
For some reason I've always personally preferred Miss Marple to Poirot, but again there have been a fine series of adaptations of the Marple books by the BBC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Marple_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Marple_(TV_series) When it comes to Poirot I suspect I'm biased, because I love Inspector Morse, both the original books and the excellent ITV adaptation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Morse_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Morse_(TV_series) For some reason I started watching Morse before I'd heard of Poirot, and the two styles are very different. I guess I preferred the one I'd seen first! (Although Morse has better music, so that's a win!)
- Jaruzel 9y ago
  If you haven't already, you should really watch Endeavour, aka 'Young Morse': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endeavour_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endeavour_(TV_series) It is very, very, good.
  - robotmay 9y ago
    Must admit that I never got into Endeavour, but then I also preferred the Lewis series to Morse :)
  - stevekemp 9y ago
    I watched the first few episodes, but for some reason I didn't enjoy it. I will second the sibling comment though; I really enjoyed watching Lewis.
- timthorn 9y ago
  Much like Suchet with Poirot, Joan Hickson made Miss Marple her own - Christie wrote to her years before the series was made, hoping that Hickson would one day play the part.
ddoran 9y ago
To fans of this and other British crime shows - current and classic - I'd recommend BritBox. It's a collaboration between the BBC and ITV and has some real "mystery" gems [1]. I've no affiliation. [1] https://www.britbox.com/us/genre/mystery https://www.britbox.com/us/genre/mystery
- js2 9y ago
  It looks like BritBox only has the first six seasons (series?) of Poirot. For the remaining seasons, you need to go to acorn.tv. Let's see, can I get it from iTunes? Nope, Apple only sells 7-13 in the U.S. too. (Still waiting for the video rights holders to learn the same lesson the music rights holders eventually did: if you don't want people to pirate, make it easier to buy it than to steal it.)

lobster_johnson 9y ago

I think the Poirot series is superb, but some of them suffer from stretching the runtime -- the best ones are about 51 minutes long, whereas the longer ones (which includes all of the last few seasons) click in at 1 hour and 29 minutes, some of which are based on short stories, not novels. As delightful as Poirot and his mysteries are, these are also admittedly somewhat shallow, implausible puzzles that rely on acting and cozy English nostalgia to entertain, not deep characterization or touching character arcs. Stretched to two hours, there's often not enough meat to hold one's attention. David Suchet is a national treasure, though. I wish he would be in more movies and shows.

thaumasiotes 9y ago
> the longer ones (which includes all of the last few seasons) click in at 1 hour and 29 minutes, some of which are based on short stories, not novels. What matters is how much content there is in the episode. People have gotten the idea from Peter Jackson's awful, awful Hobbit movies that pages of source material are a restriction on how much movie you can make. But the problem there was that the movies were terrible, not that The Hobbit was shorter than a three-book series. Shrek is a 90 minute movie based off of a children's book of just 1,150 words. Nobody ever complained about the quality of Shrek.
- mathattack 9y ago
  After rereading the Hobbit, I wanted someone to arrest Peter Jackson for vandalism. It was such an awesome reread!
- oldandtired 9y ago
  A personal question to you: Why and in what particular ways do you consider Peter Jackson's renditions of the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to be so awful, awful? I have enjoyed by stories since I first came across them 40 years ago. I thought that Peter Jackson did an excellent job on retelling the story. In point of fact, retelling it in a way that keeps the essence but is a new variation. When I first obtained my copy of Lord of the Rings (which I still have), I read it 11 times in 8 months. I still read it when I get the urge. I have found that Peter Jackson has quite a different imaging of the story of the story compared to my own imagining and no less entertaining. I have had people complain about the "licence" he took in the retelling, about not being true to the original writing. However, a good story teller will add to and change a story to make it more effective for his telling. That is the essence of good story telling - how you choose to emphasise various elements.
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    > Why and in what particular ways do you consider Peter Jackson's renditions of the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to be so awful, awful? A question to you: when did I say anything about The Lord of the Rings?
    - oldandtired 9y ago
      Because Lord of the Rings is no less one of the Hobbit movies.
      - thaumasiotes 9y ago
        You're staking out some pretty strange territory, if you think it's wrong to refer to the movies based on The Hobbit as "the Hobbit movies". The Lord of the Rings movies are not the Hobbit movies at all, not being related to The Hobbit.
sg0 9y ago
I was just seeing "The Falcon and the Snowman" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087231/?ref_=nv_sr_1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087231/?ref_=nv_sr_1) on Hulu, where David Suchet plays the wily Russian agent Alex (his father's side of family is originally from Russia, however in that movie his accent sounded quite British to me).

barking 9y ago

I remember being into watching these when they came out first. And then wondering in later years how they were still current while Suchet wasn't aging.

Arn_Thor 9y ago

I grew up watching this series and treasure it dearly! To me it is the product of TV in its heyday. Based on a solid foundation, not explicit or overly dramatic to lure viewers, intelligent and family friendly (thanks to the source material) and lovingly produced. I cannot count how many times I've seen it, and I look forward to share it with any future family I may have

stevekemp 9y ago

For some reason I've always personally preferred Miss Marple to Poirot, but again there have been a fine series of adaptations of the Marple books by the BBC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Marple_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Marple_(TV_series) When it comes to Poirot I suspect I'm biased, because I love Inspector Morse, both the original books and the excellent ITV adaptation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Morse_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Morse_(TV_series) For some reason I started watching Morse before I'd heard of Poirot, and the two styles are very different. I guess I preferred the one I'd seen first! (Although Morse has better music, so that's a win!)

Jaruzel 9y ago
If you haven't already, you should really watch Endeavour, aka 'Young Morse': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endeavour_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endeavour_(TV_series) It is very, very, good.
- robotmay 9y ago
  Must admit that I never got into Endeavour, but then I also preferred the Lewis series to Morse :)
- stevekemp 9y ago
  I watched the first few episodes, but for some reason I didn't enjoy it. I will second the sibling comment though; I really enjoyed watching Lewis.
timthorn 9y ago
Much like Suchet with Poirot, Joan Hickson made Miss Marple her own - Christie wrote to her years before the series was made, hoping that Hickson would one day play the part.

ddoran 9y ago

To fans of this and other British crime shows - current and classic - I'd recommend BritBox. It's a collaboration between the BBC and ITV and has some real "mystery" gems [1]. I've no affiliation. [1] https://www.britbox.com/us/genre/mystery https://www.britbox.com/us/genre/mystery

js2 9y ago
It looks like BritBox only has the first six seasons (series?) of Poirot. For the remaining seasons, you need to go to acorn.tv. Let's see, can I get it from iTunes? Nope, Apple only sells 7-13 in the U.S. too. (Still waiting for the video rights holders to learn the same lesson the music rights holders eventually did: if you don't want people to pirate, make it easier to buy it than to steal it.)