It wasn't too difficult to picture where this production was going and referencing many of Agatha Christie's works within it too. Still it was rather obvious who the suspects were even from the outset.
Obviously it was someone young who bludgeoned Florence (Nightingale's goddaughter) on the train and this was very Murder, She cried. Or rather the 4.55 from Paddington if you prefer that title; when the woman was murdered on the train, with only the passenger in the other train next to it who witnessed it. Cue Miss Marple to investigate.
Then there was Agatha (Aka Mrs Christie) mentioning the Man in the Brown Suit, another mystery whilst talking with Mable (Pippa Heywood) Florence's lover and the fellow nurse who came to ask for Agatha's help in finding her killer. After she'd been collecting evidence for six years. But Agatha (Ruth Bradley) was too busy wallowing as her husband, Archie (Liam McMahon) wants a divorce to marry a floozy aged 24.
She meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Michael McElhatton) for advice on how to write as she's stuck on how everyone gets the suspects only past five pages of reading and she's been making them rather obvious. (That'd be me then! In any mystery!) Just think I was about to mention Sherlock Holmes before Arthur popped up. Playing a round of golf, he suggests she should design a golf course since that's what he did. He's also writing another book but if anyone finds out, he'll know where it came from.
So she does just that, designs a golf course, with her selfish husband, whom she refuses to divorce, saying she did it for him. So when he wants to play a round, she tells him she's busy. Having decided to take the case. Couldn't take his own medicine there when she ignored him, as he storms off to the Suicide Club meeting he didn't want to attend. What happened to mistress Floozy now. Agatha later says he and the other woman consummated their relationship on a golf course. Thus why would she even contemplate inventing one of her own. She even has a daughter whom she tells she's going to be going away for a few days and be in disguise.
Thus this was based on the days Agatha Christie vanished in 1926 and no one knew where she'd gone.
The other thing she mentions to Mable is how it's easy to murder, hence Murder Is Easy. Thus they hatch a plan after Mabel shows her the train carriage and how Florence got onto the last carriage as she hates trains. There was a woman in he next compartment who said the seat was booked and so Florence got onto the end one with a man there. The plan being they will invite the five suspects to the house, Florence's family house and tell them they've inherited. A little And Then There Were None - in premise, as when they arrive, all eager to inherit and be a part of this larger family, that one of them is disposed of and shot. Leaving Agatha with a dilemma since he was her main suspect, Wade (Dean Andrews). Together who arrived there with his daughter, Daphne (Bebe Cave) and he wasn't even invited.
Daphne was the suspect since she was dismissed from her job as a nurse and Florence was behind her getting fired. Then there was Randolph (Tim McInnerny) Florence's cousin whom Mabel suspected and especially since she claimed the family was distant from her and wouldn't invite her to their house, not approving of her. He turns out to not be a money grabber after all and ends up inviting Mabel to tea, which she's shocked at of course. Then there was Travis (Blake Harrison) who was arrested for the murder but released, he tells Agatha now disguised as a legal assistant, that he wasn't charged and there was a bloody footprint found at the scene, but his feet were too big for it. The print being a trench boot.
Thus leaving the former chaplain, Franklin (Joshua Silver) who has a grievance with God and country as a result of the First World War. His mother, PAmela (Samantha Spiro) and Zaki (Luke Pierre) who claims to be French, but later says he's not. Getting into an argument with Franklin. Repeating what Mabel said about Florence helping everyone irrespective of nationality. She treated a German soldier, Keller, when told not to, but did it anyway. Thus the clue to who was behind the killing.
Cue Det Inspector Dicks (Ralph Ineson)who resembled Inspector Japp from the Hercule Poirot mysteries and Hercule did get mentioned too as the Flemish detective. Dicks already knowing who killed Wade, again obvious. As well as knowing that she was really Agatha Christie, since her disguise didn't hide who she was from the photo in the paper. As for the murderers, well no proof so they pinned the murder of Wade onto them and this was confirmed by all the others. Thus she gets the idea to write about this case and guess what, as I said several minutes before, it was Murder On The Orient Express, only she didn't call it that!
Of course Mabel regretted it for a moment since they would hang, but as the detective says, they did commit cold blooded murder. It would have been more enjoyable if it didn't get too involved in the books written by her and make reference to them, no matter how subtle they were trying to be. Also not so difficult to see 'who dunnit' and the emotive for it wasn't that convincing. But then it never is.
1 comment:
It was not clear to me why Daphne killed her father. Can anybody tell me?
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