The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Episode aired Jan 2, 2000
TV-14
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

2.5K

YOUR RATING

Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

Poirot comes out of retirement when his industrialist friend is brutally murdered a short while after a local widow who was suspected of killing her husband commits suicide.Poirot comes out of retirement when his industrialist friend is brutally murdered a short while after a local widow who was suspected of killing her husband commits suicide.Poirot comes out of retirement when his industrialist friend is brutally murdered a short while after a local widow who was suspected of killing her husband commits suicide.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

2.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The picture in Ackroyd's hallway, of a mother nursing a sick child is the one that provides the vital clue in Dead Man's Mirror (1993).

Goofs
In the scene where Ackroyd's butler, Parker, is drunk and staggering down the road, the car behind him stops. Visible for a brief instant is the car's license plate, COU 313. In the very next scene as the car begins its run, the license plate has changed to JHX 473.

Quotes
[Last lines]
Hercule Poirot: I thought I could escape the wickedness of the city by moving to the country. The fields that are green, the singing of the birds, the faces, smiling and friendly. Huh! The fields that are green are the secret burial places of murders most hideous. The birds sing only briefly before some idiot in tweed shoots them. And the faces all smiling and friendly, what do they conceal?

Connections
Referenced in Murder on the Orient Express (2001)

User reviews39

Review

Featured review

5/10

Quel tragedie! This should have been one of the best adaptations.

The second book I ever ready from Dame Agatha after And then there were none, was the murder of Roger Ackroyd, I waited for years for the book to be made into TV, and it was, and they made a hash of it. The novel is an out and out masterpiece, it's a stunning piece of work, they managed to make it so flat, so devoid of the genius it undoubtedly had.

It's a gorgeous looking episode, Ackroyd's home is gorgeously decorated, the enormous wall clock, the rugs, china etc, everything is so opulent, it just oozes sheer class.

Nothing wrong with the acting, it's solid as opposed to brilliant, Oliver Ford Davies is good value as Doctor Sheppard, and I'm a big fan of Selina Caddell, so I enjoyed her very much.

I think the main problem was the direction itself, it was just so flat, dare I say boring, the changes from the novel didn't seem to benefit, if anything they diminished the plot. I didn't like Poirot's narration. Through no fault of Oliver Ford Davies the character in the book is just so different, in the book there's a warmth to him that just doesn't come across.

It's so hard to believe this and Lord Edgeware dies were made at the same time, that was brilliant, this one is just flat. A tragic 5/10