The Fine Gael TD Michael Ring hit the nail on the head when he complained during the week that we are surrounded by an incessant stream of doom and gloom on television and radio.

If it isn’t collapsing development companies, it’s banks, which are bringing this country to the verge of ruin. Escapism please!
Fortunately there is plenty of choice out there for those of us who want to forget the harsh realities of life a while.

A new episode of the popular detective series Poirot, which aired on ITV last Wednesday night, is a perfect example. David Suchet, playing the pedantic Belgian Hercule Poirot, offers two hours of light entertainment – and in his world, the crimes are always solved and guilty are punished. Wouldn’t it be great, for just once, if fact imitated fiction?

In keeping with the time of year, the plot centred around a Halloween for children in the local ‘big house’, during which a dislikeable young girl who claimed she once witnessed a murder, is drowned in the bowl where her fellow guests had earlier been bobbing for apples.

Cue the arrival of Poirot, a man who possesses more of the ‘ze little grey cells’ than our entire government does and who peels away the layers of duplicity and subterfuge to solve this dreadful deed.

The plot keeps twisting and turning as viewers are presented with clues and false leads, until finally it’s revealed that the handsome gardener and the lady of the house are at the root of all the ill deeds. It’s not the sort of stuff that will tax your brain overly, but when you have had your fill of hearing about tax cuts, Poirot is your man. This particular episode had some of the cream of Britain’s acting talent including Phyllida Law, Timothy West and Zoë Wannamaker. And if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.