2010/07/11

The Prayer of M. Hercule Poirot

As one of a diminishing number of television watchers who view programs in low-def, at the time the newspaper says they are scheduled to be broadcast, I was pleased to watch the first of what promises to be a series of feature-length Poirot episodes tonight on PBS's "Masterpiece Mystery".

Tonight, it was Murder on the Orient Express.  Very dark, with Poirot, (played by an aged David Suchet), already in a grim mood from a troubling case preceding the story.  No comical Captain Hastings this time.  A gorgeous production, as always with the Poirot series, but almost hallucinatory, much like the later Holmes/Jeremy Brett episodes.

I don't know if this matches the books, but I've never seen Poirot make much of his religion before.  Here he prays before going to sleep, and fingers his rosary a number of times.  It's an old prayer, called "a prayer for protection":

O My God, I adore Thee and I love Thee with all my heart. I thank Thee for having created me, for having made me a Catholic  and for having watched over me this day. Pardon me for the evil I have done this day; and if I have done any good, deign to accept it. Watch over me while I take my rest and deliver me from danger. May Thy grace  be always with me.
Amen

2 comments:

Steerforth said...

I think the increasingly weird tone of the later Sherlock Holms episodes was partly due to Jeremy Brett's health problems.

A friend of mine wrote a few of the later episodes and increasingly found himself having to rewrite most of the story at the last minute, with Mycroft suddenly taking the lead.

Brett said...

Very interesting, Steerforth. I will have to keep that in mind the next time I see those later episodes.

I can't bear to watch anyone else play Sherlock Holmes. Jeremy Brett played him so well.