Agatha Christie Hour: Set One

Another rip-off for Americans
I have been waiting for years for these programs to come to dvd! My family and I watched them on A&E many years ago when it was still a good network. The scripts are excellent, the acting superb. Rather atypical fare for Christie dramatizations, but still quite worthy. I am giving the programs 5 stars for content.

The complaint that I have is with the marketing here in America. There were actually 10 dramatizations done for The Agatha Christie Hour. This set contains only five for, at this writing, $28.99. The British set contains all 10 stories and is labeled as "the complete set". It was released only about a month ago with the same cover art (a five disc set, two stories per disc), so it's not as if our American set is a re-release or a re-think. So, again as of this writing, the British set containing all 10 stories is available from Amazon.co.uk (in case the site name is deleted, it's this site's sister site in England) ~ at a price of $31.35 after conversion to...

Period British drama from the writer of Poirot
Agatha Christie has done more for British Mystery than any other writer, and this set provides some of her lesser known tales. It's not Poirot, but some of the Poirot characters first appeared in these stories. Five different mysteries, but all taking place in the 1920-30s period, and provide a look at a bit more of Christie than perhaps Poirot displays. There is more to Agatha Christie than just mystery.

The true question for this series is not Will Christie's stories be good?; but Will the acting be up to script level? Are the actor's worthy? They are. The series is cast with several British members of high achievement and fame. The 5 episodes give us interesting mixes from romance to crime. They come alive, enchanting at times, suspenseful at other times.

Episode details:
"Case of the Middle-Aged Wife": London's Parker Pyne (Maurice Denham), 'Dr. of Happiness' is engaged by a cheated-upon wife. Does it help, Mr. Pyne, to reverse the cheating participants...

A Look at Agatha Christie's Early Non- Poirot Work
"The Agatha Christie Hour, Set 1" another classic British mystery television series, and a long-awaited one, finally arrives here. Ten episodes of it were made by Thames Television for Britain's ITV (independent television stations), in 1982; it was broadcast on Public Broadcasting's "Mystery!" in the early 1980s. We now get the first five stories, showing another, softer side of, possibly, the world's most famous and beloved practitioner of British mystery writing. They arrive in a boxed set of two disks, running approximately 257 minutes, with, happily, subtitles, and an interesting feature on Christie's early non-Poirot work.

The series was based on short fiction by Dame Agatha, the mistress of mystery; all the episodes are set in the 1920s and `30's, and do not feature her signature detective Hercule Poirot. However, interestingly enough, they feature some characters that carry over to the Poirot stories, most notably Miss Lemon, Poirot's secretary/assistant, and...

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