The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman

Hastings is in the market for a motor car, and his search leads the pair into the Italian quarter of London, where a count has just been murdered. The count, it turns out, employed the new boyfriend of Miss Lemon, which gives the case a personal hook before Poirot has even taken off his coat.

The victim was being blackmailed, and the mystery is about which of his secrets was worth a life, because the killer is easier to find than the reason. Poirot moves through the little world of the Italian community, where everyone knows everyone and nobody says everything. Blackmail is a quiet crime, but it leaves footprints everywhere, and Poirot collects them patiently. Miss Lemon, who is not easily impressed, has her own quiet stake in the outcome, and she watches the investigation with more than professional interest.

Clive Exton and Agatha Christie wrote it, Brian Farnham directed. David Suchet is Poirot, Hugh Fraser is Hastings, Philip Jackson is Japp and Pauline Moran is Miss Lemon. Leonard Preston plays Mr. Graves, Anna Mazzotti Margherita Fabbri, David Neal Bruno Vizzini, Vincent Riotta Mario Ascanio, Sidney Kean the count and Alberto Janelli Darida. The credits spell the count Foscanti; the rest of the episode prefers Foscatini, the sort of detail the count himself would have hated.

It is a warm, lively episode in a small corner of London, and the murder feels all the more sordid for happening among so much colour and cooking. Poirot solves it the usual way, by listening harder than anyone else and letting the blackmailer do the rest. The case has a satisfying pull between old loyalties and new money. And it is over before you have finished admiring the scenery. The best episodes of this series make you want to move to the neighbourhood, and this one almost does, murder or no murder.