Hercule Poirot in Cat Among the Pigeons

It is over two years since ITV1 screened series 10 of Agatha Christie's Poirot. This month the UK channel is finally screening series 11.

The new series includes Mrs McGinty's Dead screened last Sunday and The Third Girl on next Sunday. This evening ITV1 is screening Cat Among The Pigeons.

Something's not quite right at the Meadowbank Academy. Said to be "the best girls' school in England", its wooden corridors are, as a new term begins, echoing with intrigue, danger and 1930s slang such as "noggin", "topper" and "nabbed".

Luckily, the headmistress (Harriet Walter) has invited a Hercule Poirot to visit, so he is on hand when teachers are impaled by javelins.

What follows is a beguiling mystery, full of shadowy red herrings and wheels within polished wheels. Walter is wonderful, her feline vowels and rhomboid hairdo sailing over the story, which takes in a Middle Eastern princess, a mysterious figure known as "the Angel" and the vital importance, in Poirot's view, of knees.

Look out for Harry Potter's girlfriend in the cast.

Hercule Poirot - David Suchet
Miss Bulstrode - Harriet Walter
Prince Ali - Raji James
Bob Rawlinson - Adam De Ville
Mr Forbes - Don Gallagher
Mrs Forbes - Georgie Glenn
Patricia Forbes - Georgia Cornick
Miss Johnson - Carol Macready
Miss Rich - Claire Skinner
Miss Chadwick - Susan Wooldridge
Insp Kelsey - Anton Lesser
Ann Shapland - Natasha Little
Princess Shaista - Amara Karan
Adam - Adam Croasdell
Miss Blake - Amanda Abbington
Mlle Blanche - Miranda Raison
Miss Springer - Elizabeth Berrington
Jennifer Sutcliffe - Jo Woodcock
Julia Upjohn - Lois Edmett
Mrs Upjohn - Pippa Haywood
Lady Veronica - Jane How
Hsui Tai - Katie Leung