Agatha Christie's Poirot

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

9 mistakes in The Kidnapped Prime Minister

(5 votes)

The Kidnapped Prime Minister - S2-E8

Factual error: The calendar behind Japp in Scotland Yard places November 13 as a Tuesday, but that is wrong for 1935, when the story is set (the whole season consistently goes with 1935 historical facts, Poirot in this episode makes a reference to "the Dutch", and the newspaper page Hastings shows up with at the end of the episode talks about the notorious gangster's death, happened that year). It was a Wednesday in 1935, to be Tuesday it should have been 1934. (00:34:00)

Sammo

The Kidnapped Prime Minister - S2-E8

Factual error: At the end of the episode, during the fitting of the jacket with monsieur Fingler (last role of character actor Milo Sperber), Hastings is reading a newspaper prop sporting a doctored first page (the real headline, which was about Italy, is replaced by the fake PM speech) of The Daily Express based on the real Friday October 25th, 1935, which is wrong in month and day of the week (the appointment was on Thursday and it's supposed to be November going by the various calendars seen throughout the episode). (00:51:00)

Sammo

The Kidnapped Prime Minister - S2-E8

Factual error: Poirot in this episode has to save the Prime Minister, kidnapped before he could attend the League of Nations Disarmament Conference. This episode is set in November (the previous of the season in October), but it can't possibly be 1935, since the Disarmament conference happened between 1932 and 1934. It makes mention of the PM being vital to have at least a chance at preventing Germany's rearmament, with Hitler withdrawing Germany from conference and League of Nations entirely in October 1933. It should be noted though that the conference happened in Geneva and not in Paris like it's described here. The original material did not have this sort of inconsistency since it was set to happen much earlier in the century and for the Treaty of Versailles, where Paris would have been the correct destination. Both short story and adaptation have as prime minister a fictional "David MacAdam", with him designed to be a stand-in for David Lloyd George, just recently replaced as PM.

Sammo

The Kidnapped Prime Minister - S2-E8

Continuity mistake: At Scotland Yard, Poirot is readying the glasses for the moment when Japp will pass him the paper he's reading, about the driver. When the view switches, his hands, that were above the desk level, start off from underneath the desk. (00:33:35)

Sammo

The Kidnapped Prime Minister - S2-E8

Continuity mistake: When Poirot tells his tailor that it's his equipment that is at fault, Hastings holds the newspaper in ways not coherent between shots (he folds it, but in the reverse shot is still looking at the top of the page, and so on). (00:04:20)

Sammo

The Kidnapped Prime Minister - S2-E8

Continuity mistake: Poirot opens the car window in two shots; in the first he is holding his walking stick close to the body, but in the second he has a completely different posture, with the cane perfectly vertical and his arm at a right angle. (00:13:20)

Sammo

The Kidnapped Prime Minister - S2-E8

Continuity mistake: Hastings has lost sight of the car he was pursuing, and stops at the crossroads. In the wide shot you can see his left hand holding the top of the windshield, but in the close-up he's using just his right hand. (00:40:40)

Sammo

More quotes from Agatha Christie's Poirot
More trivia for Agatha Christie's Poirot

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - S7-E1

Question: The doctor (James) put on a Dictaphone to make the suggestion that Roger Ackroyd was alive at 21:30 hrs. But how could he know that someone (Paton) would pass the door of Ackroyd's study at precisely that moment?

More questions & answers from Agatha Christie's Poirot

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.