Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings visit an archaeological site in Iraq where the latter's nephew, Bill Coleman (played by Jeremy Turner-Welch), is working. They arrive to the news of an Arab small-time crook and drug dealer having been murdered. In addition, Louise Leidner (played by Barbara Barnes), the wife of the head of the expedition team, Dr Eric Leidner (played by Ron Berglas), has been frightened by a sinister face that appears at her window at night. She reveals that she has also been the recipient of threatening letters, which are signed by Frank Bosner, a young man she had married during the war in a whirlwind romance. Bosner was due to be executed as a spy, but had evaded capture and then was believed killed in a train crash. She suspects that Bosner's younger brother, William, could be behind it. The letters arrived whenever she showed an interest in other men. However, upon her marriage to Dr Leidner, they stopped but began again when she showed affection towards Richard Carey (played by Christopher Bowen), one of her husband's key colleagues. When Louise is found dead in her room as a result of a head injury, Poirot questions how her murderer could have committed the crime unseen since her room adjoins a busy courtyard. In addition, the windows were locked and barred and there was nowhere in the room where the killer could have hidden. Poirot believes that William Bosner could be masquerading as a member of the expedition staff and killed Louise in a crime of passion. But which one of them could he be? Meanwhile, Joe Mercado is attacked by the brother of the murdered drug dealer and he subsequently commits suicide leaving a note in which he says that drug addiction had led him to murder. That solves one mystery, but Anne Johnson (played by Dinah Stabb), one of Dr Leidner's closest friends and colleagues, is murdered in a horrific way before Poirot is able to present the solution to the case...
All in all, Murder In Mesopotamia emerges as quite good entertainment even though it is by no means one of the best in the series. Everyone in the cast seem well chosen for their parts, but nobody really sets the screen alight here. David Suchet is still the definitive Poirot and there is an amusing subplot explaining how he happened to be in Iraq when this case came along. He had received a telegram from his old flame, Countess Vera Rossakoff, asking him to meet her in Baghdad because she urgently needed his assistance. Only, he arrived to find that she had left for Shanghai leaving only a message at the hotel asking him to pay her bill! Fans of the series will recall that the character had appeared in The Double Clue nearly a decade before, an episode in which we saw a romantic side to Poirot. The solution to the case when it comes is satisfactory, if perhaps a little implausible and as ever the crime is reconstructed by use of flashbacks from the perspective of Poirot as he explains to the assembled suspects how he arrived at the truth and whom is responsible for the crimes. The production values are of the usual high standard we expect from this series. There is lavish location photography in Tunisia by Kevin Rowley and the direction by Tom Clegg is competent.
All in all, Murder In Mesopotamia emerges as quite good entertainment even though it is by no means one of the best in the series. Everyone in the cast seem well chosen for their parts, but nobody really sets the screen alight here. David Suchet is still the definitive Poirot and there is an amusing subplot explaining how he happened to be in Iraq when this case came along. He had received a telegram from his old flame, Countess Vera Rossakoff, asking him to meet her in Baghdad because she urgently needed his assistance. Only, he arrived to find that she had left for Shanghai leaving only a message at the hotel asking him to pay her bill! Fans of the series will recall that the character had appeared in The Double Clue nearly a decade before, an episode in which we saw a romantic side to Poirot. The solution to the case when it comes is satisfactory, if perhaps a little implausible and as ever the crime is reconstructed by use of flashbacks from the perspective of Poirot as he explains to the assembled suspects how he arrived at the truth and whom is responsible for the crimes. The production values are of the usual high standard we expect from this series. There is lavish location photography in Tunisia by Kevin Rowley and the direction by Tom Clegg is competent.