Suchet looks back fondly on career on tour
It’s a few years now since David Suchet completed his remarkable run as Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989-2013).
But it was only during lockdown that the whole Poirot adventure came to its natural fruition, says Sir David, who is currently on the road with Poirot And More, A Retrospective.
“During lockdown, it is fair to say, without any exaggeration, that my mailbag for Poirot trebled and from all around the world. We discovered that during this long period of lockdown people have been going to my films and watching them at home. They simply loved the company of Poirot.”
Could it have been that Poirot represented a world where problems were solved at the end – unlike the grimly open-ended world of Covid?
“I really don’t know and I really can’t understand it, but people were getting the box sets and they were saying ‘Thank you!’ And I just cannot tell you how humbling that is.”
Poirot And More, A Retrospective looks back fondly at David’s illustrious career, sharing some of his most beloved performances in a new and intimate light.
Geoffrey Wansell, journalist, broadcaster, biographer and co-author of Poirot and Me, will be joining David as interviewer on stage for dates including Theatre Royal Brighton, October 21; Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, October 24; Chichester Festival Theatre, November 9 to 10; and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, November 26 to 27.
With David’s remarkable career away from Poirot, clearly there is a great deal to say in the “And More” half of the show’s title, but clearly the Poirot is massive – and a massive surprise too.
David’s pride is that his Poirot comes absolutely from Agatha Christie’s books: “I was determined that I would be very, very true to what she wrote. Just before the series started showing, I was being interviewed, I think by The Daily Telegraph, and I was asked how I thought it would go. I said I was rather frightened that people might consider it a bit boring.
“There have been some wonderful comedy interpretations of Hercule Poirot by some wonderful actors like Peter Ustinov, but the Agatha Christie estate just didn’t want me to do that.”
The point about Poirot is that he is wonderfully eccentric, as David says, but he is not a comedy character: “And I am just incredibly thankful to the public for accepting that.”