Poirot comes over to the quaint little countryside town of Broadhinney to look into the murder of Mrs McGinty, a local house maid and to try to save the alleged murderer from the gallows at the request of his friend, a police inspector. When a second murder takes place, the whole case takes a much more complicated dimension. The investigation unfolds family secrets, intimate frustrations and hidden pasts that are all eventually brought to light with the help of the infamous little gray cells. It's the nicest people that usually do the most gruesome things, might be the moral of the movie. Every episode that features Zoe Wannamaker is a good one in my book, and she always provides for great comical relief that so wonderfully counteracts Poirots serious manners. Those are also somewhat ridiculed here, like his reactions to the Sommerhayes' inn and the quality of his lodgings, which is a good contrast to a very dark, gloomy air looming from behind the tidy fronts and gardens in Broadhinney. Poirot is his usual brilliant self, but there a few other standouts as well, like Madam Carpenter, the arrogant femme fatal with an embarrassing secret. I like the current tendency in the ITV series towards a darker mood in the stories that works well with whodunits. Unlike many other episodes, here the story doesn't really revolve around a large wealthy family(like, say, After the Funeral) but rather individual couples who always turn out to be rusty underneath the gilded surface. Unfortunately, they cut out the brilliant intro music, and I can't imagine why. Bring it back, guys!