Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18212 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-10
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 412 minutes

DVD Description

The Agatha Christie's Poirot - Set 6 DVD contains four discs and covers the entire sixth series of the hit TV show "Agatha Christie's Poirot". Set in the 1930s, the award-winning period drama stars David Suchet as a quirky Belgian detective named Hercule Poirot. The series is written by Clive Exton, but based on Agatha Christie's classic crime stories. Meticulous in his work as a private detective, Poirot exercises his "little grey cells" to help the police solve crimes and murder mysteries, whether they request his services or not. Captain Hastings, Poirot's side-kick, is played by Hugh Fraser and Phillip Jackson takes on the role of Inspector Japp.

Customer Reviews

Another superb season, Suchet's tenth.
This collection comprises four feature length mysteries, taken from four fine novels spanning the great Poirot period of Christie's career. The Blue Train (1928), Cards on the Table (1936), Taken at the Flood (1948) and After the Funeral (1953), despite this they are presented as taking place during Poirot's later years.

The season as a whole seems to mark a shift from the quintessential "Who (or how) dunnit" to deeper novels in which Poirot participates rather than dominates. The viewer needs to adapt a little, Suchet has now completed fifty seven stories, therefore the shift is welcome to ensure ongoing freshness to the series.

Suchet is superb as usual, but the great treat is Zoe Wanamaker who in "Cards on the Table" totally assumes the personality of Ariadne Oliver, the eccentric novelist friend of Poirot, there are nine novels featuring Ariadne, so please, please let us see Zoe in some more of them soon.

The surprise for me was "Taken at the Flood", this is a much deeper novel that usually associated with Christie, it is not solely a vehicle for Poirot, it would stand up on it's own without him. A fine study of a ghastly dysfunctional family, and in David Hunter (excellent performance by Eliot Cowan) one of the most cold blooded villains we have met so far in the series.

All the superlatives apply, the never ending rosta of fine performances from great actors and actresses, long may this series continue.

So beautifully done, only the packaging is a shame
These new Poirots are so well and beautifully done (5+ stars!!!). Yes, they are darker and more emotional (sader) than the short stories, mostly due to the soundtrack and the much deeper story. Murder, greed, jealousy or rage are sad things anyway. Poirot himself says in "After the Funeral" that he is interested in psychology: why and how do people things. But this enriches the whole series.

David Suchet still dominates every scene he is in, and the supporting cast is simply perfect as well (and as always). No miscasted actor, no bad or exaggerated acting.

The video quality is very good, the aspect ratio is 16:9 (the first 8 seasons or so were 4:3). The sound Dolby Surround (not 5.1).

There is a "Behind the Scenes" feature on every of the four disks. But this is done not very well (3 stars): Granada obviously made ONE feature of one hour length and cut it into FOUR pieces. So in the "making of" on "After the Funeral" we get also information (spoilers!) about "Cards on the Table", the same with the other ones. Still, there ARE some features and we get to know from David Suchet how he approaches the Poirot figure.

Packaging is a REAL SHAME (1 star): No information about the films (length, aspect ratio, sound, date of broadcast), no summary of the stories. To save space in your DVD shelf they let two of the discs overlap each other so you have to take out disc 2 to get disc 1. But after all it's the wonderful content that counts and not the inferior packaging box!

Episode titles
This set contains the four most recent (shown in 2006) tv movies of Poirot adaptations starring David Suchet. They are as follows:
*Taken At the Flood
*After The Funeral
*Cards On The Table
*The Mystery Of The Blue Train

They are stories which are set during Poirots' more advanced years and this suits the stature of David Suchet as he grows with the role and allows it to mature in the way that Agatha Christie wrote it.

Speaking of which, there are a few changes to the plots from the novels, but this has been done many times before in this ongoing series of Poirot - as well as other adaptations of Christies' works over the decades. Some people might find this irritating, but these are really very good pieces of entertainment in my opinion, even with those changes.