Showing results by narrator "John Moffatt" in All Categories

John Moffat stars as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in seven more BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations. The stories in this volume are: Evil Under the Sun, Sad Cypress, Murder in Mesopotamia, Lord Edgware Dies, Halloween Party, Murder on the Links and Five Little Pigs. Based on the original novels by Agatha Christie, these superb adaptations feature a cast of outstanding actors playing an array of likely suspects.

This is the very first Poirot/Hastings story. Set in 1916, we meet Captain Hastings as he is invalided out of the Great War and goes to convalesce at Styles Court, the family home of his great friend, John Cavendish. By an extraordinary coincidence, billeted in the village is a brilliant little retired detective with an egg-shaped head, who made a considerable impression on the Captain when he was in Belgium. Styles is not a happy household and in the blistering summer heat, tensions mount.

A blizzard has hit England. In the tiny village of Sittaford, on the fringes of Dartmoor, a party of six is gathered in Sittaford House, home of Captain Trevelyan. He has rented the house out for the winter and is staying in a nearby village. As evening draws in, a seance is proposed. But it reveals more than they had anticipated - TREVELYAN DEAD, spells out the board. Slowly the table begins to rock again, spelling out the word M-U-R-D-E-R. Is it true? And who would kill a man who doesn’t have an enemy in the world?

The gruesome death of Mrs McGinty provokes Superintendent Spence to seek the help of his old ally Hercule Poirot. The victim’s young lodger has been found guilty and is due to hang. But Spence is not convinced by the circumstantial evidence which influenced the verdict. So, at considerable personal discomfort, Poirot goes down to the sleepy village where the old lady lived and where, by chance, his good friend Ariadne Oliver is also staying.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot. Mrs Farrars is found dead of an apparent overdose one year after the death of her husband. The villagers of King's Abbot are suspicious. The rumour is that she poisoned her husband and was in love with Roger Ackroyd. When he is found murdered the following day, there is little to go on. Luckily one of the newest residents who has retired to this normally quiet village is none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

A full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of an Agatha Christie story. On a flight from Le Bourget to Croydon, on which Hercule Poirot is an apprehensive passenger, a woman is found dead. A doctor on board is inclined to put it down to a wasp-sting, but Poirot suspects that a poisoned dart is the real cause - and, perhaps rather too conveniently, a blow pipe is discovered stuffed down the back of his seat. Clearly the murder can only have been committed by one of the passengers or crew on the plane.

John Moffatt stars as the famous Belgian detective in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of one of Christie's most popular novels. Linnet Ridgeway has led a charmed life. Blessed with beauty, enormous wealth, and a devoted husband, she has everything anyone could wish for. But as the happy couple set out on an idyllic honeymoon cruise on the Nile, storm clouds are gathering. Linnet's former friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort, follows her and Simon wherever they go and Linnet senses she is in danger.

Gordon Cloade is killed in a London air raid, and his vast fortune passes to his young wife Rosaleen. Five of his relatives are desperate to get their hands on Cloade's money, and Rosaleen begins to fear for her life. The prospects for the Cloades improve when they discover that Rosaleen had a previous husband who perished mysteriously in Africa. Then a mysterious stranger appears in the village, saying that he has something to communicate to her, but the following morning he is found dead.

An international cast of suspects, all passengers on the crowded train, are speeding through the snowy European landscape when a bizarre and terrible murder brings them to an abrupt halt. One of their glittering number lies dead in his cabin, stabbed a mysterious twelve times. There is no lack of clues for Poirot - but which clue is real and which is a clever plant?

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot with Stephanie Cole and Donald Sinden. Hercule Poirot, along with three other luminaries from the world of crime detection, is invited to dinner by the renowned London socialite Dr Shaitana. Also on the guest list are four members of what Shaitana calls his Black Museum - a collection of murderers who have each succeeded in 'getting away with it'. After midnight, when the guests prepare to leave, they make a terrible discovery.

Crime sleuth Hercule Poirot returns in a thrilling BBC Radio 4 dramatisation. Amy Leatheran has never felt the lure of the mysterious East, but when she travels to an ancient site deep in the Iraqi desert to nurse the wife of a celebrated archaeologist; events prove stranger than she could ever have imagined. Her patient’s bizzarre visions and nervous terror seem unfounded, but as the oppressive tension in the air thickens, events come to a terrible climax - in murder...

Here are some of the finest narrative poems in the English language, dating from an age of rich inspiration.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring John Moffatt as the great Belgian detective. Hercule Poirot and his good friend Captain Hastings are enjoying a well-deserved break on the Cornish Riviera, in the idyllic village of St Loo. Wandering along the terrace of the Hotel Majestic on the first morning of their stay, Poirot literally falls at the feet of a pretty, dark-haired girl and, much to Hastings’ delight, insists that she join them for a cocktail.

Ariadne Oliver, Queen of Crime Fiction, has been asked to devise a Murder Hunt for a fête at Nasse House, the home of Sir George Stubbs. But she begins to suspect that someone is manipulating the scenario of her game and fears that something very sinister is being planned. She sends for her old friend Hercule Poirot. At first, he is not inclined to take her very seriously, but soon a series of events propels him to change his mind.

Following an otherwise-enjoyable literary luncheon, the celebrated crime novelist Ariadne Oliver is accosted by a particularly formidable woman who engages her in conversation about one of her many god-daughters, whom Ariadne hasn’t seen since she was a child. She lands a bombshell with the question ‘What I want to know is this: did her mother kill her father, or was it the father who killed the mother?’

As Hercule Poirot sifts through his post one particular morning, he alights upon a letter from an elderly and (as it transpires), exceedingly rich spinster - Miss Emily Arundell. She is clearly in great distress and seeking his help, but doesn’t say why. Her only specific mention is ‘the incident of the dog’s ball’. However, what intrigues Poirot is the date of the communication - it was written two months ago. He persuades Captain Hastings that they must visit the lady with all haste.

Carla Lemarchant was a child of five when her mother was accused and convicted of poisoning her father, the famous painter Amyas Crale. After Caroline Crale dies in prison, Carla is sent to live with her uncle and aunt in Canada. Only on her 21st birthday does Carla learn of her family history when she reads a letter written by Caroline before her death, in which she denies murdering her husband. But if her mother didn't kill Amyas Crale, who did?

Poirot has always hated visiting the dentist, but this time his check-up is painless and soon over. As he leaves Mr Morley's surgery, he observes a woman wearing patent leather shoes with large buckles. She catches one of the buckles on the taxi door and wrenches it off, and as Poirot hands it...

‘Monsieur Poirot, somehow or other I’ve just got to get rid of my husband!’ No sooner had she uttered the words than Lady Edgware’s husband was dead, brutally stabbed in the neck. The evidence against her is overwhelming, the case cut and dried. But what was the truth behind it all? What enemies lurked in the background of the victim’s life? Hercule Poirot is on the case, intrigued once more, ready to investigate murder in the library...

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot. When Poirot arrives in France, following an urgent appeal for help, he finds he is too late. His client, a South American millionaire, has been stabbed to death and his body flung into a freshly dug open grave on the golf course adjoining the property. Meanwhile the millionaire's wife is found bound and gagged in her room. Poirot launches an investigation and the baffling mystery begins to unfold.