The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

Think Agatha Christie would turn in her grave with the swearing that was in it. Just not needed and totally unnecessary.

Glad I just stuck to the book, which is a ripping good yarn and is said to have inspired several real poisoners.

First off, I’d like to point out that I have first dibs on Rufus Sewell! He has an air of mystery about him, to me. And I like tall, dark handsome men. . I’d also nab him simply for that gorgeous car he was driving, although the back-to-front door disturbed me a little.

We enjoyed it as a way to pass a snowy winter’s evening. I’ve never read an Agatha Christie so maybe my expectations were low. Loved the fashions and the apartment Mark & Delphine/Hermia lived in. I also noticed the handkerchief on the wrong side of Mark’s suit but I didn’t notice the hay bales. It was lovely to see Rita Tushingham again, she still looks elfin-like!

As to the ending, I assumed it was a recurring nightmare he was doomed to suffer as the punishment he’d asked for in the hospital.

Oh, I see - that explains it then. I don't think Agatha Christie was a great "literary" writer but she knew how to plot a mystery so that everything added up, unlike some modern authors.

Eloethan Agatha Christie's stories were usually very cleverly plotted but this just made no sense at all. That is because any connection between Agatha Christie's book The Pale Horse and this drama, title and the names of a few characters apart, was purely coincidental.

I'd recorded this and watched it over the weekend. What a waste of time. I couldn't make head nor tail of it and the supposed resolution was just nonsense. Agatha Christie's stories were usually very cleverly plotted but this just made no sense at all.

Thanks for that explanation, shysal.
I was going to watch the 2nd part on catch up but I won't bother now.
It sounds ghastly.

Another one here who had to look for an explanation on the internet and I am still not clear. I watched to the end because of Rufus Sewell, but I didn’t enjoy it. I won’t bother with any more of these adaptations.

This fashion for clever clever endings to TV dramas that leave viewers scratching their head and rushing to the Internet for explanations is really becoming tiresome.

I am so pleased that I am not the only confused viewer! Here is an explanation.
finance.yahoo.com/news/pale-horse-ending-explained-happened-093300373.html

Caught up with episode two last night, I too am confused!

Definitely didn’t enjoy it.

Another bewildered viewer here. I enjoyed the first part, but was totally confused by the second. When so many of us are left perplexed, wondering what was real and what was fantasy, who died and who survived, etc, it's the production that's at fault, not the viewers.

Hello magazine have printed an explanation to the ending

Surely if we need an explanation, then it's been badly written?

I didn't enjoy it much either, found the ending a bit strange. Normally I love Rufus Sewell but not this time, I agree with whoever said he looked a bit florid.

I think he is dead at the end isn't he? I agree with others this adaptation or more accurately complete rewrite was not enjoyable at all. I have nothing against re interpretations which I often enjoy but this one was just not enjoyable at all.

Hello magazine have printed an explanation to the ending of The Pale Horse.
It is still as clear as mud.

Sorry, Miss Marple was in the film, also broadcast again recently on television.
At least it all made sense in the end.

I didn't 'get' the ending either

Enjoyed ogling Rufus Sewell though

Miss Marple wasn't in the book. Mark Easterbrook solved the mystery with a y woman called Ginger who he fell in love with over the course of the story.
In the book Mark was a pleasant decent man with an uncomplicated private life. No dead wives or mistresses or murders in his past.

Surely Miss Marple solved the mystery in the book and it was her friend, a clergyman, who put her onto it in the first place?
It was a load of tosh and I can’t say I was enamoured by Rupert Sewell.
Next time an “adaptation “ is on I will give it a miss and find some wet paint to watch dry.

Watched part 2 last night.
What a hopeless mess! So disappointing.

I do wonder why on earth the likes of whatever her name is - Phelps? - feels the need to savagely butcher what was a IMO a clever and very carefully crafted plot.
If she thinks she can do so much better, why on earth doesn’t she write her own?

So who was Oscar? I think that I might have missed something??

Reviews have been very mixed.

Rather disappointed with all of it really. Most odd.

Rather disappointed with episode 2 ?