Elephants Can Remember

BBC Radio 4 Poirot

by Michael Bakewell (Adapter), Agatha Christie, John Moffatt (Narrator)

"Mercifully human beings can forget". Old sins have long shadows. Magnificently mustached Belgian detective Hercule Poirot agrees to help old friend, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, for her god-daughter's prospective engagement, delve into the deaths of Lord and Lady Ravenscroft, ruled a double shooting suicide by the police twelve years before. All that is left are dim traces: confusing testimonies conflict from witnesses, the shocking revelations of a Swiss schoolmistress, a doctor's strange diagnosis, identical twins, the dog who bit -- more hints than clues.

This production was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 7 January 2006.

Genres: Audiobook, Mystery, Fiction, Agatha Christie, Crime, Classics

2 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Michael Bakewell (7 June 1931 – 11 July 2023) was a British radio and television producer and radio playwright.

His work included adapting The Lord of the Rings (with Brian Sibley) into a 1981 radio series for the BBC and a series of 27 adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories broadcast between 1985 and 2007 by BBC Radio 4.

He was born in Birmingham, England. After graduating from Cambridge in 1954, he was recruited by the BBC's Third Programme. He became the first Head of Plays at the BBC in the 1960s.

Reviews

[Alyson Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old sins have long shadows indeed!we join Poirot trying to solve an aged murder to aid the proposed marriage of a young couple. Mysterious and intriguing slice of Poirot!

[Jill Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing better to cheer you up when you're ill than a good christie mystery!

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 1.5 hour long adaptation of Christie's larger novel, pared down for smooth listening. Subplots are missing. Interesting enough, with John Moffat's Poirot providing lots of plummy plot summary. Julia Mackenzie makes a flitty Ariadne Oliver; and very nice to hear Jill Balcon as Mrs. Rosentelle. Just long enough to listen to before bed...All is well with the world!

[Reading Fanatic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short & Sweet

This is a delightful short story. The mystery is intriguing and the story kept me engaged from start to finish--not difficult due to its short length, admittedly. In any event, I highly recommend this lovely story. Happy reading!

[Alba · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time I kind of guessed the end in advance! 😁 entertaining as always

[sabisteb aka callisto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs. Ariadne Oliver bittet Hercule Poirot um seine Hilfe. Ihre Patentochter Celia Ravenscroft soll den Sohn von Mrs. Burton-Cox heiraten. Diese jedoch hat bedenken, den vor 10 Jahren wurden Celias Vater General Alistair Ravenscroft und seine Frau tot bei den Klippen ihres Hauses gefunden. Beide starben durch eine Pistole, die zwischen ihnen lag. Nun stellt sich Mrs. Burton-Cox die Frage, wer wen getötet hat und warum, den Wahnsinn soll ja erblich sein, und um Celias Mutter gab es schon immer Gerüchte. Mrs. Cox will nicht, dass ihr Sohn jemanden heiratet, der möglichweise durch erblichen Wahnsinn belastet ist.
Ein 10 Jahre zurückliegendes Verbrechen zu klären reizt Hercule Poirot. Gibt es aber noch Zeugen aus dieser Zeit, die ein Gedächtnis haben, wie ein Elefant?

„Elephants Can Remember“ ist der letzte Hercule Poirot Roman von Agatha Christie und wurde das erste Mal im Jahr 1972 veröffentlicht, spielt aber noch in den 1940er Jahren. Insgesamt ein eher dünner Fall, der zumindest für mich schon sehr bald klar war.
Das Hörspiel aus dem Jahr 2006 jedoch reißt es noch mal raus durch seine außerordentlich gute Besetzung und Umsetzung. Der mittlerweile leider verstorbene John Moffatt ist ein wunderbarer Hercule Poirot und auch alle Nebenrollen sind sehr sogfältig besetzt. Wegen der jedoch sehr vorhersehbaren Geschichte muss ich diesmal einen Punkt abziehen.

[Mae Leveson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite Agatha Christie story or BBC radio dramatisation of her work. Some of the Poirot stories seem a bit long-winded when dramatised like this: I think that they make better television. Personally, I prefer the radio dramatisations of Miss Marple and the cosy village life of St Mary Mead.

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like, at least this time I fully understand the denouement, but (spoilers) I think it was pretty rotten that Celia's father chose to use a murder-suicide to get rid of her mother's killer when he could have done a regular murder and then LIVED TO RAISE HIS KIDS.

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read and loved this book, but it had been so long that hearing the radio drama was almost like reading it for the first time. Excellent mystery!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Very good production

[Tamar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't sea it coming at all