There's no contest: David Suchet is Hercule Poirot. After seeing Suchet in the role of the diminutive, fussy Belgian private detective for so many episodes, always capturing the style and spirit of Agatha Christie's most famous creation to perfection, and with depth and subtlety to boot, it's impossible to imagine anyone else doing justice to the role. Fortunately, there's enough Suchet-as-Poirot to keep fans happy for a long time. This twelfth Collector's Set gives us three more 50-minute episodes, and they're delightful ones.

"The King of Clubs" takes us into the intrigues of the movie-making business, where disgruntled actors may (or may not) be involved with in a suspicious death. It's a nicely set-up mystery, with just enough clues given to the viewer to get our own little gray cells ticking over, and Poirot's eventual unraveling of the complicated threads of the case based on a single playing card is quite satisfying. The period setting is particularly entertaining here, where we get a glimpse of the new entertainment of the day being made: the "talkie" motion picture!

"The Dream" is equally intriguing from the very beginning. A disagreeable millionaire calls in Poirot to interpret a disturbing dream, which seems to be foretelling his death; it's hardly Poirot's usual type of case, but it shortly turns out to be exactly up his alley. It's a quite original story with a great twist in the plot at the end; there's enough information presented to let us figure out at least some of the mystery (although there are several ways to interpret the clues) but the ending still manages to be a nice surprise. ("The Dream" also features a fencing scene that's absolutely ridiculous in terms of technique – clearly nobody making the episode actually knew what foil-fencing is supposed to look like – but is spot-on in its use of the right styles for the fencing gear and weapons used.)

The set finishes up with "The Incredible Theft," which gets off to a slightly slower start but soon turns out to be just as interesting as the other two episodes. Poirot gets called in when a set of extremely important secret plans for a new aircraft are stolen, in what looks like impossible circumstances. As with the other episodes, the pacing and characters are handled well, so we always have a good sense of who's who, and who's being suspected of doing what.

Set 12 not only has Poirot in fine form, but it also features the excellent supporting characters of Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp, and Miss Lemon. These characters add a delightful touch of humor (lightly done, and never overdone) and add a bit of continuity to the world of Poirot, as well.

Continuing Acorn Media's odd practice of releasing the episodes in slightly scrambled chronological order, these three episodes come from the end of the very first season of Poirot, originally airing in 1989.

The DVD

Video

Well, if you've made it up to Collector's Set 12, you're probably aware that the Poirot DVDs don't have exactly stellar image quality, though they've always been watchable as long as you're forgiving. Set 12 falls right into that category: it's below average in terms of how it ought to look, but it's no worse than the typical Poirot entry (and better than some). Overall, the main fault of these episodes is how washed-out they look; I resorted to cranking up the color correction on my TV set to get a little life into the picture. Apart from looking faded, the image is on the soft side, with some grain, and contrast tends to be excessively heavy in any night-time or dimly lit scenes. But, as I said, the episodes are watchable. All three appear in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack does the job quite competently in all three episodes. The dialogue is clear and easy to understand, and the overall soundtrack is clean and pleasing to the ear. And, of course, the Poirot theme music is completely charming.

Extras

All we get is text information on Agatha Christie and David Suchet, along with cast filmographies.

Final thoughts

The British mystery series Agatha Christie's Poirot is a delight, and David Suchet is always fun to watch as the titular Poirot. These three episodes are Poirot at the top of its form, and are well worth watching for any mystery fan, whether you have all the rest of the Collector's Sets or not. Highly recommended.