Poirot Collection: "Murder on the Orient Express", "Death on the Nile", "Mystery of the Blue Train" (BBC Radio Collection)

The Mystery Of The Blue Train is actually better than the original novel, though this is largely due to the fact that this ridiculously melodramatic tale is *not* one of Agatha Christie's finest moments. In the hands of the cast, this tale of outrageously wealthy Americans, sly French minxes and long suffering Brits becomes a fine burlesque comedy with everyone chasing the legendary rubies of Catherine The Great (these rubies are "voiced" by their own sound effect!). This is probably not a good play to listen to if you are offended by blantant cultural stereotypes, the "American" and "French" accents on offer here are utterly hilarious, but then if you are offended by stereotypes you should probably steer clear of Agatha Christie altogether. I find this play daftly charming, and I do love the voice of Janet Maw as the lowly-companion-become-heiress Katherine Grey. This is also, I think, the only play in Radio 4's series where Hercule Poirot is voiced by Maurice Denham rather than by John Moffatt.

Murder On The Orient Express is another charmer, this well known tale of murder in a snowdrift being especially well recorded. I do appreciate the superb use of sound effects and incidental music in this play. It it quite sad when radio plays sound like people sitting around a microphone in a recording booth, and this play avoids this by making a rich soundscape of incidental noises.

Death On The Nile is also rich in enjoyable performances, and I especially enjoy the voices of the actresses playing Jacqueline de Bellefort, Linnet Ridgeway, Mrs Allerton and Cornelia. The voice of Rosalie Otterbourne is rather unfortunate though: flat and drab and rather irritating. But on the whole this is fine entertainment.