Poirot and me, David Suchet

In 1988 television history was made: David Suchet was asked to play Hercule Poirot in a new series from the books by Agatha Christie.

Many of the stories have been made into films and actors like Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov played the little Belgian detective (or, in Ustinov’s case, not so little Belgian detective)

Now the chance was given to actor David Suchet, known as a character and stage actor. In the twenty-five years that followed he would film all the short stories and books that were written about Poirot. Many people consider him to be the ultimate Poirot, just like Jeremy Brett is the ultimate Sherlock Holmes and Joan Hickson is the ultimate Miss Marple.

In Poirot and me David Suchet describes how he first met Poirot. He never read one of the books, but soon after the offer of the role he was determined to make Poirot as believable as possible. He studied Belgian French to get to right accent and made lists of all the characteristics Poirot has.

Before filming started Suchet had a lunchmeeting with Rosalind Hicks, Agatha Christie’s daughter. She gave him advice he followed all those twenty-five years.

‘The audience can and will smile with Poirot, but we must never, ever laugh at him’.

Poirot and me is the account of the years David Suchet spent as Poirot. He tells about the productions, the changes that were made in those years and the different actors that had guest roles. Of course David Suchet also played other roles during these years. In the late nineties I was fortunate enough to see him perform Salieri in the play Amadeus while I was in London with my family. He was superb, as he also is as Poirot.

In the later years the scriptwriters sometimes made changes in the stories, and this is not always for the better, but in general the series Poirot is one of the best series there is.

Poirot and me is a must-have for every Agatha Christie fan in general and every Poirot-fan in particular.

Published in 2013

Pages: 354