Captain Daniels

In the short story The Kidnapped Prime Minister, Captain Daniels was the secretary of the Prime Minister David MacAdam. When the Prime Minister disappeared while travelling to France, Daniels became one of the suspects.

For someone who held such a sensitive appointment, surprisingly little was known about his background. Poirot summed what was for and against him. Against him was the fact that nothing is known of his antecedents and that "he speaks too many languages for a good Englishman!" Daniels spoke seven languages and Poirot tells Hastings that in his opinion, the English do not make good linguists. For his innocence was the fact that he had been found gagged, bound and chloroformed in the car that the Prime Minister had disappeared from.

He was later found to be in league with a German spy Frau Bertha Ebenthal who posed as his "aunt". Daniels' motive for the crime was not mentioned in the story.

Portrayals
Daniels was played by David Horovitch in the film adaptation of The Kidnapped Prime Minister in Series 2 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot. There he became a naval officer Commander Daniels. His motives for the crime was outlined in detail. His father had been a member of Herbert Asquith's cabinet and fell out with the Prime Minister over the Irish Home Rule bill of 1914. Daniels' father's political career had thus been ruined. In Poirot's estimation, it would not have taken much to push Daniels over the edge into the camp of Irish nationalists.

In the scheme to kidnap the Prime Minister, Daniels was in league with his divorced wife Imogen Daniels. They had been through stormy divorce proceedings only months earlier, with all the "juicy" and humiliating details covered in the press. But Poirot discovered that this was all a smoke screen to disguise their Irish nationalist plot. In reality, Daniels and Imogen loved each other very much. Daniels had given himself away when Poirot noticed a framed photo of Imogen on Daniels' desk.

David Horovitch also played Slack, the recurring policeman in the BBC Miss Marple drama series.