Emile Barillon

In Cartes sur table, the French Télévisions film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Cards on the Table, for the Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie TV series, Dr Emile Barillon is the parallel of Dr Geoffrey Roberts in the original story.

His backstory and his motives are slightly different in the adaptation. Here he was once engaged to a girl named Jeannine Poussin. But she later left him to get engaged to his twin brother Jean instead. When Jean fell ill, Emile pretended to treat him but instead injected small of amounts of poison over a period of time. After Jean died, Emile signed the burial permit quickly which forestalled any closer scrutiny of the death.

Unlike the original, Emile is not unknown to Shaitana. He is in fact the rich man's personal doctor. Somehow (it is not explained) Massud Shaitana learned of this background and so Emile became one of the four suspected killers he invited to the bridge party. Emile killed Shaitana in much the same way as in the original. Subsequently he also killed Ferdinand Jouve, the Colonel Race parallel. This was done using commissaire Laurence's own gun and in his own apartment, although how this was arranged was not explained. This latter killing caused Laurence some inconvenience as he had to arrange an alibi with Alice to get himself off from being suspended from the case.

Later, Emile killed Madame Hélène Nevers (the Mrs Lorrimer parallel) in much the same way as in the original and also circulated fake letters of confession from her. As in the original, he is uncovered when an autopsy identifies the type of poison he injected into her (he claimed it was a tonic). The fake letters were in his own handwriting and this was identified by handwriting analysis. In the original Dr Roberts had forged Mrs Lorrimer's handwriting.

Jeannine, Emile's ex-fiancee, became his secretary after the death of Jean. She told Alice Avril that Emile could have been angry with her and Jean. But equally she told Laurence that Emile was a kind and generous person who wouldn't hurt a fly. According to Jeannine, she had been working for twelve years with Emile which suggests that Jean died more than twelve years before the events in the episode. Emile Barillon is portrayed by Quentin Baillot.