Original Airdate: 26 April 2004 Written by: Nick Dear Directed by: Simon Langton Recurring cast: N/A Based on:The Hollow
Tropes:
Adaptational Heroism: In The Hollow, the killer's death is made into a deliberate suicide, rather than a second murder attempt that backfired as in the original novel.
The scene where John Christow's daughter draws the Death card, foreshadowing his fate, is cut from the story. All we get are token scenes from the children saying farewell to their parents.
The character of David Angkatell is excised from the adaptation, causing a character to reflect that in the event that Edward Angkatell were to die without issue then Ainswick would be no more as the family would now be extinct.
Edward Angkatell's suicide attempt is excised from the story altogether, making his eventual engagement with Midge Hardcastle less bittersweet.
Ascended Extra: Downplayed. Poirot joins the proceedings earlier than in the novel, having had dinner at Ainswick the evening before John Christow's murder.
The Atoner: One of the characters is revealed to have been the ringleader of various attempts to throw suspicion off the actual killer, who murdered her husband because he was cheating on her, in large part because she had also been having an affair with him.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: The murderer deliberately kills themselves with cyanide poisoning. In the original novel, they accidentally drink a cup of poisoned tea meant for somebody else.
Driven to Suicide: Gerda poisons herself with potassium cyanide after being revealed as the murderer. Unlike in the original, she planned to do so, rather than it being an accidental coincidence of her attempt to murder another person.
Fatal Family Photo: In the denouement, Gerda looks at pictures of her husband John and their children, shortly before she poisons herself with potassium cyanide.
Hotter and Sexier: Gerda catches her husband and Veronica in flagrante delicto; while they were fully clothed it's very clear what they were doing.
World Tree: Henrietta Savernake makes some doodles in random places, and all these doodles are of what looks like a stylized palm tree which she calls Yggdrasil, a giant ash tree that represents Viking cosmology, with the branches standing for different parallel worlds. A drawing of it even adds to the Orgy of Evidence deliberately planted to draw attention away from the true killer.
