The Agatha Christie Adaptation That's Impossible To Watch Today

Hercule Poirot is a creature of routine. Agatha Christie's most famous fictional detective (apart from Miss Marple) is frighteningly methodical in his investigations, and this personal quirk extends to everything he does. This obsession with order or routine serves a purpose, of course. Poirot's detective eye is so trained to recognize patterns that even the most minute inconsistencies stand out. This, combined with his knack for solving perplexing mysteries, shapes the breakthroughs in Poirot's cases, making him second to none. While he comes off as eccentric in most social situations, Poirot's grasp over human motivations and desires ensures he is always one step ahead. These qualities are most distinct in Christie's "The Wasp's Nest," a short story published as a part of the "Hercule Poirot's Early Cases" collection.

These early Poirot cases offer a glimpse into the good detective's life before he earned international renown, and some of these stories are pretty captivating. A case in point: the collection includes "The Cornish Mystery," where Poirot takes an unconventional route to solve a murder mystery after he is unable to gather proof of the perpetrator's motives. "The Wasp's Nest" is also a tad different from standard Poirot cases as it involves a dear friend, John Harrison. In this short story, Poirot randomly visits Harrison under the pretext that he's in the locality to investigate a murder that has not yet been committed. After exchanging pleasantries, Poirot enquires about a wasp's nest nearby, and it is revealed that Claude Langton — a friend of Harrison's — plans to destroy it with a petrol-filled syringe. Then, a string of strange events compels Poirot to get involved, and by the conclusion, he ends up thwarting a premeditated crime before it is too late.

Although Christie was not a fan of television as an adaptation medium, she was personally involved in the making of BBC's 1937 teleplay of "The Wasp's Nest." Regrettably, the live broadcast of this adaptation was not recorded at any point and is now considered lost media. What happened here?

According to issue #715 of Radio Times (via Lost Media Wiki), 1937's "The Wasp's Nest" was the first adaptation of Christie's source material, with film/stage actor Francis L. Sullivan taking on the mantle of Poirot. Wallace Douglas, D.A. Clarke-Smith, and Antoinette Cellier made up the rest of the cast. This announcement was followed by a summary of Sullivan's career in theatre, along with a brief list of Christie's most influential detective stories. This teleplay was conducted and broadcast live at the Alexandra Palace (an entertainment venue that was partially leased to the BBC for production and transmission in 1935), as a part of BBC's "Theatre Parade," which mostly showcased popular plays. "The Wasp's Nest" was clearly an exception, as it wasn't a successful play with several repeat performances, but it found its way to the channel's curated program anyway.

However, the live teleplay was performed only twice on June 18, 1937: a 25-minute show at 3:35 pm and a 9:40 pm evening show that lasted 20 minutes. Neither of these shows were recorded, which is a shame, as this is the only instance in which Christie wrote the television screenplay for the adaptation of her own work (which was utilized). The only evidence of the teleplay's existence is the above-mentioned Radio Times article, a three-line review in "The Observer" (which praises it as "excellently done"), and a behind-the-scenes photo of Christie with Sullivan as Poirot. The good news, however, is that Christie's script has survived and is still available for stage productions that wish to access it.

Do other adaptations of "The Wasp's Nest" exist? Yes! ITV's "Agatha Christie's Poirot" (which first aired in 1989) features an episode titled "Wasps' Nest" in the show's third season, with David Suchet playing Hercule Poirot. Although this episode remains faithful to the short story's basic premise, it plays around with the sequence of events to establish a more coherent, exciting drama that delivers the big reveal with a suitable flourish. Director Brian Farnham fills in the gaps by injecting added conflict or drama, which heightens the sense of mystery in this unconventional Poirot case. The episode also features a young Peter Capaldi as Claude Langton, and every performance is rendered beautifully in this 50-minute-ish episode.

Although the permanent loss of the 1937 teleplay is lamentable, be sure to check out the ITV episodic adaptation, which is a treat for anyone who loves mysteries and Hercule Poirot.