Recap / Poirot S 03 E 10 The Affair At The Victory Ball

The Affair at the Victory Ball

Original Airdate: 3 March 1991
Written by: Andrew Marshall
Directed by: Renny Rye
Recurring cast: Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp, Miss Lemon

Tropes

• Bait-and-Switch: After the summation is complete, Poirot gets approached by James Ackerley, expecting praise for his on-air summation... then gets some criticism from listeners for apparently mangling the English language.
• Drugs Are Bad: The victim, Viscount Cronshaw, is murdered because he wants his lover to stop using cocaine and her supplier won't let her.
• Engineered Public Confession: Poirot invokes this by doing The Summation over a radio program and letting the killer reveal himself over it.
• Fingore: There's a Gory Discretion Shot involved, but we can hear the coroner breaking the victim's rigor mortis-hardened fingers in order to help Poirot uncover a crucial clue.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: It's a costume ball, but still applies. Hastings asks why Poirot isn't wearing a costume to the victory ball; Poirot points out that the theme is dressing up as a famous person, and he is a famous person.
• Never My Fault: Played for Laughs. When Poirot gets called out for "murdering the English language", he blames Inspector Japp for the fiasco.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: One of the complaints about Poirot's live radio summation of the crime.