page_title: Dumb Witness
section_title: Television
hierarchical_section_title: Dumb Witness / Adaptations / Television
caption_attribution_description: English: Cottage to the west of Tarn Howes near Coniston, Cumbria, UK
context_page_description: Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.
  The book features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and is narrated by his friend Arthur Hastings. One novel published after this one features Hastings as narrator, 1975's Curtain: Poirot's Last Case.
  Reviews of this novel at publication in 1937 were generally positive, though several pointed out what they considered to be plot weaknesses. The author does "this sort of thing so superlatively well", while The Times in London questioned one of the actions by the murderer: "who would use hammer and nails and varnish in the middle of the night" near an open bedroom door?
context_section_description: In 1996, the novel was adapted as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of notable changes to it, which included the following:
  The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District.
  Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case.
  Charles Arundell is a motor-boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties.
  Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings, to a safe place and does not get told to go to another place.
  No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation.
  The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog often takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation.
  An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with carbon monoxide, killing him as a result.
  When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own.
  The cast includes:
  Hugh Fraser as Hastings
  Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
  Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
  Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
  Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
  Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
  Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
  Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
caption: Tarn Hows Cottage, Cumbria, doubled as Teresa Arundell's home in Agatha Christie's Poirot
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