Ariadne Oliver—who made her first appearance in 1932, in the short story “The Case of the Discontented Soldier,” which ran in—was, for Christie, her own avatar and little pawn of self-insertion into her books. In, the novel where Oliver first meets Hercule Poirot, she is described as “an agreeable woman of middle age, handsome in a rather untidy fashion, with fine eyes, substantial shoulders, and a large quantity of rebellious gray hair with which she was continually experimenting.
While Ariadne Oliver’s presence in the books was frequently for comic relief, Christie’s ability to use the character to satirize detective fiction itself indicated her prowess as a proto-postmodern writer. She is frequently elbowing Poirot in the metaphorical stomach, tartly saying, “Not symmetrical enough for you?” in. Oliver describes her books, and their flaws, while on the case, and often notes the preposterousness of a given scenario.
Branagh, once described as an Orson Welles in the making, has long been at a place in his career where he wants to be considered not only an actor or a director, but an