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Locos in The ABC Murders


Harlequin
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I thought "The ABC Murders" on BBC1 was very good. I liked the darker and edgier version of Poirot with his tortured past.

 

The storyline revolved around the railway and I found some of the railway details a bit distracting. I know that it was a drama, not designed to satisfy railway geeks and they were using artistic license to improve the storytelling, but... 

 

I'm pretty sure that many of the external train shots were created by CGI, especially where they showed trains in the landscape and locos passing close by the observer. (Although I think some close-ups were actually live steam filmed on location somewhere.)

 

So the CGI team had the chance to easily create exactly the right locos for the period and region but what they seemed to do was create wierd hybrid things with GWR-style safety valve covers and LNER livery!

 

Did anyone else notice this? I might go back and look at it again on the iPlayer if I get time.

Edited by Harlequin
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I watched it and agree it had more atmosphere than the twee Aggie Christie murders usually have. But the railway scenes were best described as illiterate. It seemed to use Keighley, Embsay and the NYMR as locations, all in Yorkshire and all with authentic hardware available, had they chosen to use it. Apparently it was set in London so the millstone grit viaducts did not look right.

 

The. CGI scenes with a GWR Castle carrying LNER on its tender and hauling LNER teak carriages was just ludicrous, especially when chasing round several times in quick succession.

 

Maybe the CGI creatives could do with a bit of reality supervision from 'adults in the room'?

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I much preferred the earlier Poirot series. I never got any sense of that darkness from Agatha Christie's books.

 

John Malkovich was good within the constraints he was working but, really, none of the characters made me feel like I wanted to see what happened to them. I recorded the first hour but I didn't bother to record the others. I just watched them in the hope that it would improve. I will stick with my ITV box-set.

 

I didn't realize they were using real trains. To my mind the railway shots looked like poor quality CGI

 

...R

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I caught a glimpse of NELPG owned J27 65894 arriving at 'Doncaster' (Pickering on the NYMR) Completely out of period with its BR number on the smokebox, but definitely the real thing. My Wife and Daughter were watching the program and they tried to get my attention for an 'id' when the 'green engine with LNER on the tender' appeared, but from the above, I'm glad I was too late to see it. I'd have been completely stumped. Wasn't set during the 'Interchange trials' was it ? (There should be a smiley face here, but it won't work - sigh)

 

Regards,

               John

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The. CGI scenes with a GWR Castle carrying LNER on its tender and hauling LNER teak carriages was just ludicrous, especially when chasing round several times in quick succession.

Maybe the CGI creatives could do with a bit of reality supervision from 'adults in the room'?

Not quite sure about ‘adults in the room’ for the vast majority of adults it would have looked like an authentic train . However given it probably had a colossal budget and they were bothering to go to the trouble of creating CGI you might have thought they would have got someone with a little railway experience to advise. Edited by Legend
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Possibly stock renders were used - after all accuracy was not a big thing as they could not be bothered to vinyl renumber the J27 from its BR number. Much of the filming was done in Yorkshire, the river and viaduct identified as Embsay was actually Knaresborough. Bexhill station is actually the Ripon Spa Baths while the house at Churston was Newby Hall. This Yorkshire Post article identifies some of the locations used https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/the-abc-murders-these-are-the-13-yorkshire-locations-that-appear-in-bbc-poirot-drama-1-9509894 but does not say what they were used as; notably ignores Knaresborough and also  Keighley station on the Worth Valley so there were probably a number more.

On the subject of accuracy, or not, if you watch the first episode the second time "Bexhill station" appears quite clearly their are a row of Sheffield bike stands visible to the left of the entrance which despite their "traditional" appearance are a relatively modern item of street furniture,

Edited by Butler Henderson
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As far as TV is concerned, "a train is a train is a train"  or "aren't they all basically the same".

If you're not going to make some effort (particularly with CGI, when you're not constrained with what's still really around and having to physically change details like numbers) why bother with steam at all? Or period costumes? Come to think of it I wonder if that's the reason we had a modern Sherlock? :)

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Have yet to watch programme but even the positive reviews suggest that, in terms of the way it has been adapted, you have to suspend disbelief given the wholesale deviations from the original story. And the same would seem to apply to the railway content. 

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The initial shots in ep1, showing a GWR loco in what appeared to be an apple green livery next to a "banjo domed" loco in an indeterminate one made me wonder about the production values of the programme.  In another scene, a guard was shown progressing down a carriage calling for tickets with a bus ticket machine around his neck.  APART from that, he appeared to have the badge of a "fascist" organisation (seen in street posters elsewhere in the episode) in his lapel.  I'm not completely convinced that a railway company would allow such expressions of opinion to be associated with their uniform....

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I turned over when I realised that the Poirot was an imposter and not David Niven !!!

 

There surely can only be one Poirot ?

 

Yes - wrong David though.

 

The definitive Poirot has to be David Suchett

 

When ITV made their version of the ABC murders back in the late 1980s / early 1990s they used the Bluebell Railway as their base for the railway scenes (which fits better when you remember that Andover and Bexhill are both firmly in SR territory). Of course by staying faithful to the book and not having fancy CGI also helped avoid some of the railway howlers on the BBC version (even if Curston did look very much like Horsted Keynes ;)  ).

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The railway content was amusing, but bore little resemblance to reality, reaching its nadir at the point where the 'red herring' is being pursued across an improbably busy set of tracks by the police. I was impressed by John Malcovich, who managed to portray a much deeper and more troubled Poirot than David Suchet does. 

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Poirot has been "portrayed" on film by Peter Ustinov (David Niven played his sidekick), Albert Finney and Kenneth Branagh.  The David Suchet version on ITV is a disincentive to watch any episodes as the character appearance and mannerisms are unbearable.  John Malkovich does a "different" Poirot, which is interesting, though he's surrounded by a slash and hack script. I can read the novels, the pictures in my mind are far superior to what appears on the TV screen!

 

The railway aspects of the series are similar to the revelation that the Post Office are going to have to replace a design in a series of stamps to be produced in 2019 as the image selected didn't show British troops landing on D Day, but instead showed American troops landing in Dutch New Guinea...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46694509

 

Its all down to younger graphic designers not having any historical general knowledge at all.

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Although the BBC will get the plaudits or brickbats for this production, they had little to do with it apart from stumping up some of the cash as it was made by Mammoth Screen* under the eye of the Agatha Christie Estate. At least it was set in 1933 and not the 1960s as some Christie story adaptions.

 

Whereas the David Suchet series shoe-horned Capt Hastings (and Miss Lemon) into most of the Poirot stories he wasn't in, this one left him out!

 

*N.B. Mammoth screen is owned by ITV!

(They also make Poldark amongst others)

 

Keith

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