Agatha Christie's Poirot

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)

64 mistakes in season 1

(5 votes)

The Third Floor Flat - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: As Poirot stands from the late dinner with the young socialites to go talk to Inspector Japp next to the door, he leaves his napkin on the table. The napkin changes between shots, going from mostly straight to crumpled (when Mildred says "How dreadful!") to straight again. (00:22:20)

Sammo

The Third Floor Flat - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: As the two porters are carrying the piece of furniture, the draping on top of it goes all the way down one side when they have just unloaded it from the van, and the opposite side when they are bringing it up Whitehaven Mansions' stairs getting cranky at the doorman. (00:01:40)

Sammo

Four and Twenty Blackbirds - S1-E4

Plot hole: In the denouement, Poirot says explicitly that the culprit sent the letter to the victim - but the letter in question, in this dramatization was stated earlier (in a change from Agatha Christie's original) to be an invitation to the art gallery, and the culprit is not the manager/art gallery owner! In the actual short story the letter was a personal message of entirely different nature, written and authored by the culprit.

Sammo

Four and Twenty Blackbirds - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: When the milkman places the third bottle on Mr. Gascoigne's steps, they are placed in the sun. When the neighbour approaches, the whole road shows no particular sunlight. Which is fine, as a sudden change of that kind is ordinary. When the other neighbour pops by the corner and inquires, there's a close-up of the bottles, and again there's visible and directional light, pointed differently than the first instance. (00:08:45)

Sammo

The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly - S1-E3

Plot hole: Forgiving the implausibility that nobody checks their own watch at the time of the kidnapping, the clock in the living room strikes 12 supposedly ten minutes early: everyone blindly storms from the room when the chimes have not yet ended, and reaches the supposed perpetrator who is by the side entrance. They talk to him briefly and the clocktower signals now the real noon. It's hard to see how 10 full minutes could have passed, and even harder when everybody runs back to the house, to find the clock there signaling 12:11: it took them a mere minute to get there, what took them so long the first time? (00:30:00 - 00:31:30)

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The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly - S1-E3

Plot hole: When he is taken away from the mansion, Johnnie is hammering with his fists on the car windows, as if he was genuinely in distress and resisting the kidnapping. But as we know, that's not what is happening, he knows his captor well and came willingly. (00:31:25)

Sammo

The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly - S1-E3

Plot hole: In the original story, it is made clear that Mrs. Waverly is the one in the family with the wealth, but it does not go as far as having everyone, guests included, eat plain rice and boiled potatoes, and have the mansion dilapidated with restoration work left unfinished for years. This creates several plot holes: nobody would be interested in asking lavish amounts of ransom money to people who live an impoverished life, and most importantly, the husband would never be able to justify being able to have enough money to suddenly resume construction work on the house (in the original, he simply wanted to use it as spending money).

Sammo

Murder in the Mews - S1-E2

Factual error: This episode happens on the first days of November 1935. During the 5th of November fireworks Hastings, Japp and Poirot walk at night through streets with plants prospering and in full green, and the same happens during the visit to the golf course.

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Murder in the Mews - S1-E2

Factual error: As Japp and his moustached pal visit the nightclub in search of Major Eustace, the song "Hindustan" is executed. While it is a song perfectly believable for the year (stated as being 1935) since it was written in 1918 and a huge hit, the version played here is quite a bit different, sounding a lot more like the upbeat version heard first in the Rosemary Clooney-Bing Crosby album "Fancy Meeting You Here", which had other classics reworked for the duet formula with added lyrics - exactly like in the back-and-forth heard here between the singer and the band. Said album came out in 1958, though. (00:30:20)

Sammo

Murder in the Mews - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: During the conversation with Laverton-West at the pool, in the close-ups of Poirot and Japp there are always two gentlemen chatting poolside near the bench where the politician dropped the towel. In wider shots, that's not always the case - plus, one of them walks away without a towel but he's back wearing it. (00:27:50 - 00:28:50)

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Murder in the Mews - S1-E2

Other mistake: Miss Lemon reminds Poirot of the dentist appointment he has at 11. Poirot then receives a phone call from Japp. It turns out during the investigation that the police broke into the apartment at 10:45. Considering that at least a preliminary examination needed to be made and at the time of the phone call Japp was in his office and Poirot was still comfortably having his tisane, everything leads to believe that the dentist appointment should have been later in the day (or the events at the Mews sooner). (00:03:30)

Sammo

Agatha Christie's Poirot mistake picture

The Adventure of the Clapham Cook - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When the mysterious Aussie lawyer gives Miss Dunn his card, he hands it to her with the fingertips pinching the paper in the top corner, while in the reverse shot he's holding it by the bottom corner. Also, just a moment later she gives it back to him using her right hand. Unfortunately, the card was in her left hand. (00:30:20)

Sammo

The Dream - S1-E10

Continuity mistake: Poirot gives his enigmatic host a letter; he looks at it and puts it down on the desk. The letter is at an angle, but in the following reverse shot, the letter arranges itself neatly aligned with the registry underneath. (00:15:40)

Sammo

Four and Twenty Blackbirds - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: As Poirot and Hastings watch the farce, the sword gets grabbed from the table by two hands, the left one doing the lifting by the handle. But the comedian in the following shot has it in his right hand. (00:32:04)

Sammo

Four and Twenty Blackbirds - S1-E4

Factual error: At the art gallery, Poirot and Hastings are looking at a painting identified as "Man Throwing a Stone at a Bird" by the surrealist Joan Miro. But the painting featured is completely different from the real one. (00:21:50)

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The Dream - S1-E10

Other mistake: At the end of the episode, the clock Poirot presents to Miss Lemon is pointed exactly at 3:28, which would be the time of the murder in the original novel, not in this adaption, when it was changed to 12:28.

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Problem at Sea - S1-E7

Audio problem: When Hastings is caught off guard by the premature launch of the clay pigeon, he fires a couple of shots in a haste. Fairly obvious that he does not, and the mere sound of it has been added in postproduction. (00:01:40)

Sammo

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

Answer: He definitely says "Belgian", but the subtitles get it wrong and show him saying "American."

Wblank71

Answer: It sounds a bit like "American", but listen very closely and you will hear "Belgian".

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