Natasha Little as Ann Shapland
In Cat Among The Pigeons, Ann Shapland was the new secretary of Miss Bulstrode at Meadowbank School for Girls. Some of her previous employers had been Sir Mervyn Todhunter (to whom she had been his private secretary), Sir Andrew Peters (she had been employed as his P.A.) and Monica Lord. She had also worked for two Cabinet Ministers and an important Civil Servant.
She was engaged to Dennis Rathbone.
Role in the novel (may contain several spoilers)[]
It is revealed that Miss Shapland actually is an espionage agent using the alias Señora Angelica de Toredo.
Poirot organizes a reunion in which he exposes Ann as the murderer. She had shot Miss Springer, and hit the French teacher with a sand bag. However, she wasn't responsible for the murder of Miss Vansittart since Ann had an alibi for her death. Poirot said that the alibi wasn't fake, but the real killer of Eleanor Vansittart was Miss Chadwick. Then Poirot invites to the reunion the mother of one of the pupils of Meadowbank, which exposes Ann as an espionage agent. The latter takes a gun and aims it to Miss Upjohn but ends up shooting Miss Chadwick instead.
Portrayals[]
In Agatha Christie's Poirot, Ann is portrayed by Natasha Little.
In Le chat et les souris, the French loose adaptation of the novel, Ann Shapland is renamed Anne Gampart. Here, she kills the real Anne Gampart and disfigures her to pose as her in the boarding school. Other than that, her portrayal is partly faithful to the original novel.