The three shows in this set are all from the first season, produced in 1989; indeed all three first aired in February of that year. Coming off a string of medium-budget feature films starring, in turn, Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov, the Poirot series was probably seen as an enormously safe bet. The productions, by 1980s British television standards (actually, by any country's standards), are quite lavish for a limited run series (10 episodes in its first season), with two of these three shows shot on location in Greece.

The Third Floor Flat Adapted by Michael Baker. Directed by Edward Bennett. Airdate: 2/5/89. Poirot's Art Deco apartment building, Whitehaven Mansions, gets a showy workout in this clever episode, about a new tenant murdered two floors directly below Poirot's flat. (The building, for the curious, is actually Florin Court in Charterhouse Square.) The show also features Poirot and friend Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser) going to a Mousetrap-like stage mystery, with amusing results as Poirot tries to guess the murderer's identity.

Triangle at Rhodes Adapted by Stephen Wakelam. Directed by Renny Rye. Airdate: 2/12/89. Vacationing in Rhodes, at the picturesque Palace Hotel beach resort, Poirot is witness to an apparent love triangle between a thrice-married woman (Annie Lambert), her husband and a married man on holiday with his wife. When the woman is poisoned, Poirot is called onto the case. Beyond the excellent use of the exotic Greek location, this episode has a marvelous undercurrent of international tension, between the Greeks and their then Italian occupiers (the series is set in the mid-1930s), and the thinly veiled contempt by the xenomorphic British to everything foreign.

Problem at Sea Adapted by Clive Exton. Directed by Renny Rye. Airdate: 2/5/89. On a cruise to Egypt, a haughty, domineering and unlikable woman (Shelia Matthews) is stabbed to death, but how did the murderer gain access to her locked stateroom? Filmed aboard a gorgeous period vessel (uncredited, alas) with a port call in Alexandria, Egypt (actually convincingly redressed Greek locales) this episode must have been expensive, with hundreds of extras in period costumes. As with Triangle at Rhodes, internationalist Poirot amuses himself quietly observing British fear and loathing of a foreign culture: "Lunch? In a native place?" one person asks incredulously, finally deciding, "Let's give it a go!" Both this and Triangle at Rhodes were directed with subtle imagination by Renny Rye, who would go on to direct two superb Dennis Potter shows, Lipstick on Your Collar (starring Ewan McGregor, 1993) and Karaoke (1996), and one pretty good one Cold Lazarus (1996).

Video & Audio

Shot in 16mm (common for filmed shows in the U.K.), DVDs of Poirot can only look so good, but these transfers seem to have maximized every grain of color and detail there is to squeeze out of the limited format. The image on all three is free of dirt and other imperfections, while the locations, period costumes and other details, along with the better-than-average stereo soundtrack go a long way to compensate. There are no subtitle options.

Extra Features

As with other sets in this series, Poirot Set 11 is notably short on extras, including only short and woefully incomplete biographies of Christie, Suchet, and several guest stars.

Parting Thoughts

When Poirot first debuted, some were turned off by Suchet's low-key performance, a contrast to the deliciously theatrical ones by predecessors Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov, and which also contrasted Jeremy Brett's flamboyant Sherlock Holmes, airing on PBS's Mystery! at the same time. But Suchet's Poirot is an enduring one, a subtle and multi-layered character that impressively builds on what was mostly an outrageous (if amusing) caricature. (And don't be turned off by the goofy opening titles, either, which attempt an Art Deco look but mostly look like something out of Zardoz.) Stick with it for a few shows and you'll be hooked -- the series is a must-see for mystery buffs.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. His new book, Cinema Nippon will be published by Taschen in 2005.