Taken at the Flood

The title comes from Shakespeare, and this is a story about timing. A young widow, Rosaleen, has come into sole possession of her late husband's fortune, and her brother refuses to let her share any of it with the in-laws. The dead man's family wants Poirot to prove that Rosaleen's first husband is still alive, which would make the second marriage a fraud and the fortune theirs. Then a stranger is found murdered, the family asks Poirot to identify him, and the two problems turn out to be one. It is a household of ifs, and Poirot is asked to resolve every one of them.

The Cloades and the Marchmonts are the kind of families Christie wrote best: money between them, secrets under the politeness. Rowley Cloade, Frances Cloade, Adela Marchmont, Lynn Marchmont; they all want something from the widow, and David Hunter stands between them and her. The widow's brother dominates her, and the family reads that as an opening. The two families share the same habit of speaking kindly while meaning the opposite. Superintendent Spence is on the case, with Pebmarsh and Beatrice Lippincott hovering at the edges, each with an angle on the dead man.

Jenny Agutter plays Adela Marchmont, with Patrick Baladi as Rowley Cloade, Eva Birthistle as Rosaleen, Elliot Cowan as David Hunter, Amanda Douge as Lynn Marchmont, Penny Downie as Frances Cloade, Richard Durden as Pebmarsh, Claire Hackett as Beatrice Lippincott and Richard Hope as Superintendent Spence. Agatha Christie wrote it with Guy Andrews, and Andy Wilson directed. David Suchet is Poirot.

What looks like a family squabble over money turns out to be a genuine puzzle about identity, and the episode earns the shift. But the first husband is the ghost at the feast, and Poirot's patience with the whole squabbling clan is quietly funny. The murder victim is a stranger, which makes the case unusual: the family barely knew him, and everyone has a theory about him. Someone here has taken the tide at the flood, and working out who is half the fun.