Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot mistake picture

The Adventure of the Clapham Cook - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When the mysterious Aussie lawyer gives Miss Dunn his card, he hands it to her with the fingertips pinching the paper in the top corner, while in the reverse shot he's holding it by the bottom corner. Also, just a moment later she gives it back to him using her right hand. Unfortunately, the card was in her left hand. (00:30:20)

Sammo

Murder in the Mews - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: During the conversation with Laverton-West at the pool, in the close-ups of Poirot and Japp there are always two gentlemen chatting poolside near the bench where the politician dropped the towel. In wider shots, that's not always the case - plus, one of them walks away without a towel but he's back wearing it. (00:27:50 - 00:28:50)

Sammo

Four and Twenty Blackbirds - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: When the milkman places the third bottle on Mr. Gascoigne's steps, they are placed in the sun. When the neighbour approaches, the whole road shows no particular sunlight. Which is fine, as a sudden change of that kind is ordinary. When the other neighbour pops by the corner and inquires, there's a close-up of the bottles, and again there's visible and directional light, pointed differently than the first instance. (00:08:45)

Sammo

The Third Floor Flat - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: As the two porters are carrying the piece of furniture, the draping on top of it goes all the way down one side when they have just unloaded it from the van, and the opposite side when they are bringing it up Whitehaven Mansions' stairs getting cranky at the doorman. (00:01:40)

Sammo

The Third Floor Flat - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: As Poirot stands from the late dinner with the young socialites to go talk to Inspector Japp next to the door, he leaves his napkin on the table. The napkin changes between shots, going from mostly straight to crumpled (when Mildred says "How dreadful!") to straight again. (00:22:20)

Sammo

The Third Floor Flat - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: During the entirety of the scene in the kitchen, Patricia keeps her hands in her lap, but they change repeatedly from being side to side, to her right hand lying on top of the upturned left. (00:22:40)

Sammo

The Third Floor Flat - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: When Jimmy reads the solicitor's letter, the date is 5 October 1935. Hastings wrecks his car here but in Murder in the Mews, taking place on the 6th of November, he has it again. Assuming that he has been able to get his car back to form entirely restoring/replacing the ruined sections (Japp tells him that it's now just "an expensive scrap of metal"), in that episode the car needed ordinary maintenance work, while going by the events of this episode it would have been fresh off the car shop instead.

Sammo

Triangle at Rhodes - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: Poirot at the ruins meets Mrs. Gold, and he starts telling her more about the local findings. You can see in the faraway shot how next to the fence two guys are working by the goat. One of them has a black beret, the other the typical saharienne outfit. Change shot, and as Poirot lets out a "What a beautiful day" remark, the dude in black becomes another man in khaki instead. (00:13:20)

Sammo

Agatha Christie's Poirot mistake picture

Triangle at Rhodes - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: When Pamela Lyall is talking to Poirot before his scheduled leave going as far as wishing there were a murder so he could stay, her right hand moves on and off the table between shots. (00:24:20)

Sammo

Triangle at Rhodes - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: Sitting down with Miss Lyall as she coughs, Valentine invariably has her left hand up when shot by the right side, just the elbow on the armrest, while every time she is shot from the left side she has the whole arm leaning on the chair, hand down. (00:29:00)

Sammo

Problem at Sea - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: Mrs Clapperton puts down the score notes and pencil before lighting up her cigarette. Between the shots and the reverse, the pen disappears and the notebook changes position. (00:13:35)

Sammo

Problem at Sea - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: Clapperton demonstrates how he can deal cards of his choosing at will and therefore he refrains from playing bridge. In the close-up of his hand and table you can see the cards he dealt are stacked irregularly, but when he deals the last 4s the cards are more neatly arranged, spread in a fan. (00:17:10)

Sammo

Problem at Sea - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: When Mr. Russell interrupts Hastings' plans of randomly shooting in the middle of the Alexandria harbor, an empty brandy glass is on the table next to him in the first shot, and comes closer the second time he's in frame. (the two shots are not strictly consecutive but there's no reason why the frail old man, still in the same position both times, would pull his empty glass a couple inches closer when off-camera). (00:26:20)

Sammo

The Mysterious Affair at Styles - S3-E1

Plot hole: Can't fault this massive plot hole to the adaptation, but to the source material; the culprit (forgetting the stupidity of writing an incriminating letter detailing the plan to murder someone, and put it in a desk he shares with her) since there are people outside the room that are about to enter, tears the letter in 3 neat vertical strips, rolls them, puts them in the vase on the mantlepiece, and then opens the side door to slip away...instead of simply pocketing the letter and going through that same door. Nobody was going to search him or anything and could have burned it, torn it into confetti, anything, later. It takes way way longer to do what he did, which needed him to stay there in the room increasing the chances of being found out. And of course he and his accomplice do not retrieve the letter after.

Sammo

More mistakes in Agatha Christie's Poirot
More quotes from Agatha Christie's Poirot

Problem at Sea - S1-E7

Trivia: Poirot in the ship's lounge is reading the actual May 1st 1935 issue of Bystander (recognizable by the cover and with the correct page order, does not seem to be a simple movie prop), roughly consistent with the time frame of the first season and a contest taking place on the 14th. (00:07:50)

Sammo

More trivia for Agatha Christie's Poirot

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - S7-E1

Question: The doctor (James) put on a Dictaphone to make the suggestion that Roger Ackroyd was alive at 21:30 hrs. But how could he know that someone (Paton) would pass the door of Ackroyd's study at precisely that moment?

More questions & answers from Agatha Christie's Poirot

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.