Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Theft of the Royal Ruby

December 29, 2021 11:31 PM - Season 3, Episode 9

Poirot prepares to spend a quiet Christmas on his own with a box of chocolates, but he has to give up his plans when the British government asks for his urgent help. Prince Farouk, a young member of the Egyptian royal family visiting London, has lost a famous ruby, and this is deemed to be a matter of national security.
posted by Carillon (2 comments total)

I liked the ploy of the girl fooling folks by being dead and the switcheroo with the puddings. That said the Prince is a drag on the episode and the whole plane/chase wasn't great.
posted by Carillon at 11:39 PM on December 29, 2021

I was surprised that Christie used an actual person, Farouk, who was roughly at this age and living in England. She wrote an unflattering if probably accurate account in the story which was published in 1960, long after he was overthrown but before his death in 1965. The hovering Whitehall mandarin was accurate for that time period as well.

Re the mystery, it bugged me that after the woman walked out of the restaurant, Poirot’s immediate focus was the country house and its inhabitants. He never asked Farouk how/when/where he met the woman. Even if would ultimately be a dead end, it’s still the first thing you’d ask.

That’s how I learned to cut open a mango and it was a British guy who showed me. It would be funny if he learned it from watching Poirot.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:53 PM on December 30, 2021