No mystery for Poirot! Despite the fact that they were filming a 'whodunnit' there was no mystery about the benefits to Salcombe lifeboat when a London Weekend Television film crew spent two weeks in the town.

The unit was filming a feature-length episode of Agatha Christie's 'Poirot' in and around the harbour, with the lifeboat store and other harbour facilities at the disposal of the film crew.

Poirot himself, alias actor David Suchet, autographed copies of the Christie novel 'Peril at End House' which were sold by the Salcombe Bookshop and the proceeds donated to the RNLI, the film crew collected £150 and a local property owner whose gardens were being used in the filming added another £500.

David Suchet is pictured presenting a cheque to Salcombe lifeboat Coxswain Frank Smith, and the actor and his family were later given a tour of the station's new Tyne class lifeboat Baltic Exchange II..