Agatha Christie: Poirot-Taken at the Flood (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Mystery	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	93:45 (Case: 95)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Andy Wilson
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	David Suchet Celia Imrie Patrick Baladi Tim Pigott-Smith Elliot Cowan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Christopher Gunning Christopher Gunning Christopher Gunning

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.75:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Hercule Poirot, one of Agatha Christie's most famous creations, has been brought to the small and large screen many times, probably most famously by Peter Ustinov in the series of movies made in the 1970s and 80s. More recently, the role has been inhabited by David Suchet who has appeared in many made for television productions for Granada television as the Belgian sleuth. He has been making these shows since 1989 in an on again, off again manner, however, recently, four more episodes were made in 2005. A previous set of four were made in 2003, which were reviewed on this site at the time of their release. This one is one of the four newest productions, Taken at the Flood - Wash Away The Mystery. As usual with Poirot stories (and Agatha Christie generally) there are many suspects and a convoluted plot involving red herrings, half-truths and small hints.

    Poirot is having lunch with his friend, Major Porter when he starts to tell him the story of how he came to lose his leg and suffer other injuries. It occurred when he was sitting in a park opposite the house of a rich man, Gordon Cloade who has recently married a much younger woman, Rosaleen Hunter. She had previously been married to an acquaintance of Major Porter, Robert Underhay (who is missing, presumed dead) and the Major was keen to catch a glimpse of her, as he had not met her. As he sat there the house of Gordon Cloade exploded, killing many people inside including the rich man himself. Luckily, Rosaleen and her brother David Hunter were choosing wine in the cellar when the explosion occurred and they escaped unhurt. Due to the recent marriage Gordon's family do not stand to inherit his money and it passes to Rosaleen. Gordon Cloade's sister later visits Poirot to ask him to investigate whether Robert Underhay is actually dead because that has never been confirmed and would invalidate the marriage between Rosaleen and Gordon. The main players are:

• Rosaleen Hunter, Cloade's new wife who seems to be completely in the thrall of her brother, David
• David Hunter, an odious and arrogant man who treats the Cloade family like dirt.
• Rowley Cloade, Nephew of Gordon, a farmer who is engaged to Lynn Cloade his cousin
• Lynn Cloade, Niece of Gordon, friend of Poirot who has just returned from overseas to marry Rowley
• Kathy Woodward, Gordon's sister who believes in clairvoyants. One has told her that Underhay is not dead.
• Dr Lionel Woodward (Tim Pigott-Smith), husband of Kathy and village doctor
• Jeremy Cloade, Brother of Gordon, having business problems
• Frances Cloade, Jeremy's wife
• Adela Cloade, Lynn's Mother
• Mr Arden, a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Underhay

    Another quality entry into the series which has some excellent red herrings and probably the strongest cast of the four recent productions, including a wide variety of familiar faces from UK television. Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good, slightly better than the three other recent additions to this series.

    The feature is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is probably the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably sharp and clear throughout. Luckily there was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was decent. There was some light background grain throughout.

    The colour was good with no major issues.

    From an artefacts perspective there was some mild aliasing and some edge enhancement.

    There are subtitles in English & English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear, easy to read and in yellow.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music was very good.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    None.

Menu

    The menu was still and silent allowing for the ability to select scenes and turn on subtitles.

    This latest set of four stories seems only to be available as a box set in both Region 1 and Region 2 . In Region 1 they are pan & scanned and do not have subtitles. They do, however, include some minor text based extras but have the same sort of video difficulties. The Region 2 versions seem to be the same as ours. Region 4 seems to be the pick.

    The video quality is good, slightly better than the others in the current release.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall