Cards on the Table initially looked like a well produced story, stylish with a wonderful set design. The murder victim Mr Shaitana (Alexander Siddig) is a devil of a character.
Shaitana is a wealthy but mysterious man in London. His hobbies include photography, art and an interest in crime, especially those that have gotten away with it.
At a lavish dinner party Mr Shaitana sets up two groups of four people to play cards in different rooms. One group contains Poirot as well as a superintendent, a crime writer and a colonel. The sleuths as they call themselves.
It leads to a question of where that leaves the other group of four who might be more unsavoury despite being outwardly respectable. Mr Shaitana is found stabbed in his chair in the room where the more unsavoury lot were playing who immediately become suspects.
Something that Mr Shaitana said that evening at the party must have triggered the crime like some of the people in attendance had something in their past to hide. Poirot suspects the victim had something more elaborate in his mind.
This episode has an intriguing build up and despite a small pool of suspects it initially keeps up the suspense but then it goes off the boil. It becomes entertaining but more in a ridiculous manner.
I believe that the adaptation diverts rather a lot from the book, the denouement is rather left field as to the murderer's motives.
Shaitana is a wealthy but mysterious man in London. His hobbies include photography, art and an interest in crime, especially those that have gotten away with it.
At a lavish dinner party Mr Shaitana sets up two groups of four people to play cards in different rooms. One group contains Poirot as well as a superintendent, a crime writer and a colonel. The sleuths as they call themselves.
It leads to a question of where that leaves the other group of four who might be more unsavoury despite being outwardly respectable. Mr Shaitana is found stabbed in his chair in the room where the more unsavoury lot were playing who immediately become suspects.
Something that Mr Shaitana said that evening at the party must have triggered the crime like some of the people in attendance had something in their past to hide. Poirot suspects the victim had something more elaborate in his mind.
This episode has an intriguing build up and despite a small pool of suspects it initially keeps up the suspense but then it goes off the boil. It becomes entertaining but more in a ridiculous manner.
I believe that the adaptation diverts rather a lot from the book, the denouement is rather left field as to the murderer's motives.