QThe Episodes seem to be out of order, what is the timeline?
AThe majority of the series takes place in the mid to late 1930 s. Using on screen references "present day" takes place between 1934 (Four and Twenty Blackbirds) and 1939 (the big four). With two episodes, The Mysterious affair at styles, and Curtain book ending the series by being set in 1917 and 1949.
The Labours of Hercules take place in 1939 / 1940 and is set twenty years after the episode the double clue, making the double clue set in the 1920s.It is impossible to draw up an accurate timeline of episodes as many contradict.
QHow faithful are the adaptations?
AThere are only 4 episodes which bear little relation to the source material they are based on, each has a totally new plot and characters, these are:
The case of the missing will
Appointment with Death
The Big Four
The labours of HerculesThe other adaptations generally faithful to Christies works, the short stories sometimes have Japp, Hastings and / or Miss Lemon added with an extra red herring subplot for them to investigate, while the longer novels usually have one or two character subplots conjoined or removed.
On Occasion a minor recurring character, for example Superintendent Spence, will be replaced with a new character due to actor availability.
Because the books were not adapted in published order there are some character plots and themes which are removed from the earlier adaptations and present in the later ones, these included Hastings marriage, his move to the Argentine and Poirots inner battle with mortality, religion, law and morals.
QIs there anything that hasnt been adapted?
AAll 34 Novels and 36 of the 37 canon short stories have been filmed, one missing is The Lemesurier Inheritance.There are several other short stories which Christie later rewrote into novels, or rewrote to have one of her other detectives to solve, For example, The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest became The Mystery of the Spanish Chest. The Regatta Mystery was later expanded into a more famous telling sharing the same title by Christie and featuring Parker Pyne as the detective.Additionally, another story not adapted into an episode is the play Black Coffee. In 2012, David Suchet performed a rehearsed reading of Black Coffee, produced and presented by The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, in aid of Chichester Festival Theatre's restoration fund.
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