Double Sin

The Lake District is supposed to be doing Poirot and Hastings good. The rest cure is quiet and scenic, exactly the kind of enforced idleness that a man of Poirot's temperament would be climbing the walls over by day three. But then someone steals a collection of antique miniatures, and the convalescence ends early. Poirot is hauled out of retirement, and he does not seem to mind much.

A collection of miniatures is a peculiar thing to steal, and the peculiarity is what catches his attention. The case is a neat, small-scale puzzle. Japp handles the official side, Miss Lemon keeps the records straight, and Poirot bends over the details everyone else walked straight past. The suspects come and go: Norton Kane (Adam Kotz), Mary Durrant (Caroline Milmoe), Mr Baker Wood (Michael Shannon), with Sergeant Vinney (David Hargreaves) and Police Constable Flagg (Gerard Horan) keeping the police presence visible. Elspet Gray's Miss Penn hovers at the edges, watching, which is what Miss Penns do.

Clive Exton wrote the script with Agatha Christie, and Richard Spence directed. Suchet and Fraser head the cast, and the old rhythm returns at once: the shared glances and half-finished sentences, Hastings arriving at the wrong answer with total confidence while Poirot lets him get there. The episode leans on the warmth between the two men rather than on elaborate tricks, and it is the better for it. Philip Jackson's Japp does the official heavy lifting, and Pauline Moran's Miss Lemon is her usual brisk self. It is a quiet case, and the episode lets it stay quiet.

There is no grand conspiracy here, no corridor of bodies. A theft, a handful of suspects and a setting lovely enough to make the paperwork bearable. That is all, and it is enough. Double Sin is gentle entertainment, and there are worse things for an episode to be.