My initial reaction? YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS!!!

I'm so excited! This looks like it'll be a faithful adaptation, too! Mark Gatiss did a fantastic job with Cat Among the Pigeons, and I'm so happy he's on board! And I'm so glad that Zoe Wanamaker is going to be back!

Thanks for posting this, shanty!

I'm excited for this too. And I have to say that for the most part I am happy w/ the cast. I'm particularly happy to see that Julian Rhind-Tutt will be in it, I love him! :0)

Fortunately for me, since I'm on the Internet, no one can see that I'm currently doing a little dance of joy and excitement. 

I see one little change... Joyce's mother is now her stepmother... could this be to make her a more viable suspect?

How I would love to be able to see that dance, GKCfan!! It certainly sounds intriguing, but, at the risk of sounding rather dull, I will reserve judgement until I've actually seen it. I always go through hell when a new adaptation is aired as I face the dilemma whether to watch or not as some I have found so disappointing. Admittedly, this is truer of the Marples than the Poirots but I always approach them with a little bit of fear gripping my heart in case a well loved story is taken apart in front of my eyes.

Yes, I know. I sound a miserable sod. I should just lighten up and enjoy them. GKCfan, I need to learn your dance and introduce more joy into my life! The thing is, I really love Hallowe'en Party and want to see it done well. Fingers crossed..

By the way, What's all this with Rowenna Drake having a son and daughter? Did the pages containing these characters fall out of my copy?

omg yes! MARK! do it again!

Does anyone know when it will be screened?

As far as I am aware, it is still being filmed so I can't imagine it will air anytime soon. Something to look forward to in 2010, I guess!

expect UK airdate 31.10.2010.

Its a Sunday and Halloween.

Perfect sense you are talking there, wolfbridge!

Not long to wait then....

So does that mean No Poirot for this year for Britain?

I'm not sure, Tommy. I've just been browsing the ITV site for news on an adaptations and linked to an article about the forthcoming adaptations of The Clocks, Three Act Tragedy and a plan to make Murder on the Orient Express. I'm sure everyone out there already knew about these up and coming productions, but it was news to me as I'm never really in touch with what goes on in TV land. This article was from May 09 so they may have already filmed some of them and have them in post-production. If anyone know anything about them, let me know please!

I did read the description of the plot they have 'adapted' for the clocks. It features a certain Colin Race instead of our old friend Colin Lamb, so the scriptwriters have obviously decided that having Battle as a father isn't much cop and have foisted a family on Johnny Race instead. I'm already getting that nervous, frightened-of-what-else-they-have-messed-with feeling in the pit of my stomach. I DREAD to think what they have done to the others they are working on.

I do so love The Clocks. Why can't they leave these things alone...

I like you LOVE The CLOCKS they obviously pulled out The Chapter where Colin sses Poirot and mentions his Father isn't in the same line as him, as IO have said up until then it can be thought that Race is Colin's Father, I think changeing names are really silly and Petty alterations, I thinkl I read when browsing Recent Posts someone said the writers 'Need' to put their mark on the Adaptations, which in my view is unfair, They don't 'Need' to put their mark on the Adaptations they choose to, feeling they 'Need' to is not only petty but silly and hurtful to True fans, I didn't go into the post on Recent posts so I might be wrong but if I am right, then the writers are petty and should go and play with somneone else's work or just right drama's that aren't based on books like the Hospital ones which are pointless anyway. 

Those 2 books I have are;

Agatha Christie's Poirot and Christie in Four Acts

Why are they "messing about" with it? Quite simply: it's a very flawed book. It has a rambling nature and AC's explanation to the problem of the clocks is dull. The reason I loved it when I read it was because of the clocks themselves; it becomes quite maddening as you try figuring out the sinister meaning. The resolution of that mystery is not very fair or fun, and I've grown to like the book far less. (The corpse in Ellery Queen's The Chinese Orange Mystery is wearing its clothes backwards. Just thought I'd mention that. Maddening clues like that are priceless.) I still like it, though, but I think it can be polished up before adapting. Not a la Cards on the Table, mind you...

Puffinjill,

Three Act Tragedy and The Clocks have been filmed, Hallowe'en Party should have wraped up production this week and will be in post-production. Murder on the Orient Express will be filmed soon.

Those 4 Movies will air in 2010 internationally and sure sometime on ITV1.

Theres Appointment with Death leftover for airing on ITV1 sometime soon :)

Thank you, Wolfbridge. I've not actually watched many of the adaptations over the last couple of years and have fallen a little out of touch of where ITV are with them. I need to work out which ones I have missed and add them to the DVD's I have already got.

I shall watch out for Appointment with Death as it is my favourite book. But I should perhaps know better, as the reason I've steered clear of some adaptations was the way they had started to mess around too much with the plot and characterisations for my liking, and therefore will probably find too much fault with this one too.

But thanks for your help!

Appointment with Death is already released on DVD, so you might buy the newest Collection.

I shall have to. I need to sit down and work out which ones I am missing from the DVD's I already have and also which ones I actually haven't seen yet. Then anything missing can be carefully and skillfully dropped into random conversations around Christmastime with, hopefully, a pleasing result come Christmas morning!

I was going to make a comment about finding a small Belgian in my stocking but wasn't sure it was in the right taste....

Regarding the name change from "Colin Lamb" to "Colin Race," most Chirsitie scholars agree that Colin's dad is Supt. Battle because of various clues (we know that Colin's dad is a police superintendent who has worked with Poirot, for example).  Remember, so far in the Poirot television series with David Suchet, we haven't met Supt. Battle, since he was replaced by a very different character in Cards on the Table.  Race was deleted from Cards too, but since we saw him in Death on the Nile, Poirot TV watchers can feel some sort of connection.

Puffinjill

Then anything missing can be carefully and skillfully dropped into random conversations around Christmastime with, hopefully, a pleasing result come Christmas morning!

I'm really looking forward to Christmas!!