Peril at End House

Poirot's holiday in Cornwall does not stay a holiday for long. At an exclusive resort he meets Magdala Buckley, known to everyone as Nick, a beautiful young heiress whose life is, by her own account, in danger. The threat is all the more alarming for being vague. Poirot, who takes an interest in anyone about to die, takes an interest in Nick. She is the kind of guest who draws attention, and attention is exactly what she does not need.

The mystery closes around her and the resort's small society: Commander George Challenger, bluff and watchful, Bert Croft, Ellen, Jim Lazarus, Freddie Rice and Charles Vyse. The house party at the resort is a small world, and small worlds have long memories. Every kindness shown to Nick comes with an interested party attached. Hastings is enchanted by Nick, which makes him the last person to ask about her. And the episode has the good manners to make the heiress herself part of the puzzle, so nothing she says can be taken at face value. Poirot works his way through the holidaymakers one careful conversation at a time.

Clive Exton and Agatha Christie wrote it, Renny Rye directed. Polly Walker plays Nick Buckley, John Harding is Commander Challenger, Jeremy Young plays Bert Croft, Mary Cunningham is Ellen, Paul Geoffrey plays Jim Lazarus, Alison Sterling is Freddie Rice and Christopher Baines plays Charles Vyse. David Suchet, Hugh Fraser and Philip Jackson are to the fore. It opened the second series on 7 January 1990.

The Cornish setting does half the work, all cliffs and weather and houses that look like they have opinions. The other half is the question the episode refuses to answer plainly: whether the danger is real, and from which direction it comes. By the close, the resort has lost its charm and the heiress has found out who her friends are.