Poirot investigates

Back on ITV3 last night with Poirot investigates, a perfectly satisfactory episode concerning the theft of a monster chain of pearls from a bedroom in the Imperial Hotel at Brighton. But somehow it seemed a bit unfinished and I was moved to check.

I did not know the name of the source book so I tried the name index supplied with our Heron edition, being convinced that the husband of the owner of the pearls had a surname beginning with 'B', the index being organised by surnames rather than Christian names. Went through all the B's and failed to find anyone suitable. I then thought that maybe the chauffeur was called Laycock or perhaps Leycock but there were none of those listed. I was then reduced to checking the 30 odd volumes for a suitable title and failed there. Then thought to try the short stories, at which point I struck gold with a story called 'The jewel robbery at the Grand Metropolitan', part of a collection first published in 1925 entitled 'Poirot investigates'. Just over 18 pages of it spun out into about an hour, less 20 minutes advertisement time, or a little over 2 minutes to the page.

I also check the IMDb entry for this episode to find that the husband was called Opalsen with no B's at all and that the chauffeur was called Saunders with no cocks at all. So much for short term memory.

Turning to the short story, I find that the whole theatrical mise-en-scène had been parachuted into the episode, providing quite a lot of minutes in what was screened. The racing sub-plot involving wayward authors and Brighton gangsters another bit of parachuting. The actual modus operandi of the crime was preserved intact, only varied by the metamorphosis of the valet of the hotel into the chauffeur of the husband, this last being fitted neatly into the theatrical business. But Miss. Lemon had been inserted and Inspector Japp had been enlarged to provide continuity with other episodes, we punters liking to have a steady core to latch onto - something that Trollope knew all about a long time ago.

Three aperçus onto 1920's life struck me from the story. First, the Brighton hotels of the day were infested with people who had made a lot of money out of the first world war and liked to flaunt their trophy wives with their trophy jewellery. Second, Mr. and Mrs. Opalsen took adjoining bedrooms in the hotel, this not being a matter needing any comment from Agatha, so presumably fairly normal for people of the class portrayed. Third, it was not necessary in the story to provide any names for either the chambermaid or her husband the valet as they were only servants.

Clearly back home again with a bang.