The Veiled Lady

A lady in a veil summons Poirot and Hastings and refuses to give her name. The veil is the point: she wants help without identity, which is a contradiction Poirot finds interesting. Her anonymity is a statement in itself, and Poirot respects a client with reasons. She has a problem too delicate for the police: a letter written in her youth, the kind of letter a young woman should never put on paper, and it has found its way into a blackmailer's hands. She wants it back.

Poirot agrees to help, and the episode earns its interest from the shape of the favour. To recover the letter he agrees to something close to a crime, and the sight of the most orderly man in London planning a burglary is the episode's quiet joke. The blackmailer's hold on her is a hold on her reputation, and reputation is currency in this world. And the plan needs accomplices: Lady Millicent, Mrs Godber, the shadowy Lavington, a sergeant and a constable for the official side of things, and a museum guard who adds a splash of farce to the proceedings.

Clive Exton and Agatha Christie wrote it, Edward Bennett directed. Frances Barber plays Lady Millicent, Terence Harvey is Lavington, Carole Hayman plays Mrs Godber, with Tony Stephens as the sergeant, Don Williams as the constable and Lloyd McGuire as the museum guard. David Suchet is Poirot, Hugh Fraser is Hastings, Philip Jackson is Japp and Pauline Moran is Miss Lemon.

The episode is a reminder that Poirot's code of order runs deeper than the law, and that he will bend the law when the law cannot reach. Watching the world's most law-abiding man plan a break-in is worth the price of admission alone. It is one of the gentler outings, with no corpse to speak of and a good deal of charm. It went out on 14 January 1990.