7.956 minSeason 1 • Episode 3
LatestWith the ABC killer still on the loose, Hercule realises that only he holds the key to the murders. He faces a race against time to stop the bloodbath.
1933. Hercule Poirot, older and greyer, receives letters threatening murder. The sender signs themselves only as “A.B.C.” When he takes the letters to the police looking for help, Hercule finds all his old friends have moved on. But soon there is a murder and the once-great detective must take matters into his own hands.
Acting
Malkovich's broken, whispered Poirot reinvents the character entirely
Direction
Bleak, desaturated 1930s Britain that feels genuinely haunted
Writing
Adaptation dares to make Poirot unlikeable, then breaks your heart
John Malkovich
Hercule Poirot
Rupert Grint
Inspector Crome
Eamon Farren
Cust
Andrew Buchan
Franklin Clarke
Bronwyn James
Megan Barnard
Tara Fitzgerald
Lady Hermoine Clarke
Anya Chalotra
Lily Marbury
Freya Mavor
Thora Grey
Conrad McCroddan
Beautiful Young Man
Eve Austin
Betty Barnard
Suzanne Packer
Capstick
Jack Farthing
Donald Fraser
Shirley Henderson
Rose Marbury
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This adaptation explicitly frames Poirot as a Belgian refugee facing 1930s British fascism, a political reading Christie never wrote but fits disturbingly well.
Malkovich refused to wear Poirot's iconic mustache, calling it 'a silly thing,' and instead grew his own thin, grey, barely-there whiskers that speak volumes about this faded man.
GB
