MurderMd on the Orient Express

he big screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s bestselling novel arrives in cinemas this month, with an all-star cast including Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Derek Jacobi and Johnny Depp. Kenneth Branagh directs and stars as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who’s tasked with investigating the murder of a passenger aboard a train travelling from Istanbul to London. To make the cast feel as if they really were passengers aboard the Orient Express, the team built a fully-functioning period train at studios in Surrey, complete with filmed footage of the European countryside, which was played on screens wrapped around the carriage windows. The cast tell us more about the experience...

TDIrECTOr KEnnETH BrAnAgH,

56, plays Hercule Poirot.

Part of what made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I heard about this film was the prospect of a cast like this. The chance to combine a sort of vicarious ride in the Golden Age of travel on the Orient Express, and then populate it with the characters embodied by these actors who can bring the detail and emotional depth to it – that was exciting.

We were all passengers on this train that travelled down the leafy lanes of Surrey pretending to be the former Yugoslavia – and after a day on the train, people did feel quite sick! There was one moment when there was a little break and the screens were still running, and I went down to one end of the train just to look at the scenery passing like you would on a real train. I wasn’t the only one! People were transported.

I didn’t watch Sidney Lumet’s 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express before shooting – and that was conscious. Our goal was to find a new approach. That’s why I think classic stories are worth retelling.