Benedict Farley is the wealthy owner of a pie factory, a man with a Victorian attitude. He makes lots of pies, keeps a tight grip on his family and expects his low paid staff to be grateful to him for providing employment to them.
Farley calls in Poirot because he has been having a recurring dream that he will kill himself at a certain time of the day. Indeed his body is found by an employee the following day.
Poirot is called in because he seems to be the only one Farley confided to about this dream.
I thought behind Farley and his bushy eyebrows and thick spectacles was the actor Bob Peck as he sounded like him. The episode does feature descendants of the great and the good. Joely Richardson (daughter of Vanessa Redgrave) and Alan Howard (nephew of Leslie Howard.)
The iconic art deco Hoover Building stands in for the pie factory. It is now a Tesco supermarket and an Indian restaurant. My wife immediately remarked that it looked familiar to her as we have visited the building.
The mystery does share a theme to an earlier episode from the first series but it is enjoyable enough but not really a deep mystery.
By and large I liked the first series even if some of the mysteries were not too strong. The hour length episodes were tight, ITV had lavished money on the series with the art deco art direction being outstanding. Suchet hit the right note with his portrayal, smart, wily and humorous.
It was a shame that the later feature length film versions became flabby, the art and set directions were not as exquisite and Poirot became rather a bad tempered bore.