Agatha Christie's Poirot

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Agatha Christie's Poirot
Image:POIROT.jpg
Genre	Drama
Starring	David Suchet Hugh Fraser Philip Jackson Pauline Moran
Country of origin	Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
No. of episodes	57 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	36x52 minutes 21x103 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	8 January 1989 – Present
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Agatha Christie's Poirot is a popular British television series that stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It first aired in 1989 and so far 57 episodes have been aired. It airs on ITV and was originally made by LWT and is now made by Granada Productions. In the United States, it airs as Poirot.

Suchet has indicated his desire to film all the remaining stories in the canon. By most critics, Suchet's characterisation is considered to be the best of all the actors who have played Poirot, and very accurate to the character in the books. Suchet said that he prepared for the part by reading all the Poirot novels and every short story, and copying out every piece of description about the character.^[1][2][3]

Many writers have adapted Agatha Christie's book for television, with Clive Exton and Anthony Horowitz the most prolific. Ten other writers have contributed to the show.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Episodes 3 DVD releases 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Cast

Recurring cast:

• David Suchet - Hercule Poirot
• Hugh Fraser - Captain Arthur Hastings
• Philip Jackson - Chief Inspector Japp
• Pauline Moran - Miss Felicity Lemon

Since 1989, a number of notable actors have appeared in Agatha Christie's Poirot, including Jenny Agutter, Robert Bathurst, Frances Barber, Andree Bernard, Emily Blunt, Lucy Briers, Peter Capaldi, John Castle, Anna Chancellor, Stephanie Cole, James D'Arcy, Frances de la Tour, Daisy Donovan, Lindsay Duncan, Christopher Eccleston, Edward Hardwicke, Oliver Ford Davies, Emma Fielding, Edward Fox, James Fox, Jenny Funnell, Beth Goddard, Elliott Gould, Elspet Gray, Geraldine James, Celia Imrie, Phyllida Law, Damian Lewis, Steven Mackintosh, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Alastair MacKenzie, Paul McGann, Sarah Miles, Jeremy Northam, Nathaniel Parker, Sean Pertwee, Tim Pigott-Smith, Diana Quick, Joely Richardson, Alexander Siddig, David Soul, Elizabeth Spriggs, Rachael Stirling, Zoë Wanamaker (as Ariadne Oliver in Cards on the Table) and Honeysuckle Weeks.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Agatha Christie's Poirot episodes

Episodes in Series One, Three, and Five are 52 minutes long. Episodes in the second series are also 52 minutes except Peril at End House and The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which are 103 minutes long. Episodes in Series Four, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven are 103 minutes long.

The 52-minute episodes are based on Christie's short stories featuring Poirot, many published in the 1920s. The TV dramatizers considerably embellished the stories' plots and set them in the 1930s instead of the 1920s.

The longer episodes are based on Christie's novels. The chronology of these episodes differs from that of the novels and, as with the shorter episodes, some stories whose book versions were set in other decades are moved to the 1930s.

In 1992, writers David Renwick and Michael Baker received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Second Series episode The Lost Mine, which, like the other Agatha Christie's Poirot episodes, aired in the U.S. as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery!.

Episodes released in 2003 and thereafter lack Fraser, Jackson and Moran, who had appeared in most episodes before then. The absence of their characters (Hastings, Inspector Japp, and Miss Lemon) is consistent with the books on which the scripts are based, but it was through interaction with those characters that many of Poirot's humorous, humanizing idiosyncrasies were portrayed in the earlier episodes. The later episodes lack the humour of the earlier as well as their signature theme music and are written, directed, acted, and scored in a more sombre fashion, depicting an older and somewhat darker Poirot.

[edit] DVD releases

All episodes so far aired of Agatha Christie's Poirot have been released on DVD in the UK (Region 2) and in North America (Region 1). In 2006, a magazine collection, also titled Agatha Christie's Poirot, was first released with a DVD of an episode and an accompanying magazine that looks into the episode, the life of Agatha Christie and the world of the 1930s, with each issue.

The eight latest episodes have been released individually and as a boxed set on DVD in Australia (Region 4), as well as the complete Series One.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Agatha Christie's Poirot at itv.com
• Agatha Christie's Poirot at the Internet Movie Database
• Agatha Christie's Poirot at the British Film Institute Screen Online

v • d • e Works by Agatha Christie
Detectives:	Hercule Poirot • Miss Marple • Tommy and Tuppence • Ariadne Oliver • Arthur Hastings • Superintendent Battle • Chief Inspector Japp • Parker Pyne
Novels:	The Mysterious Affair at Styles • The Secret Adversary • The Murder on the Links • The Man in the Brown Suit • The Secret of Chimneys • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd • The Big Four • The Mystery of the Blue Train • The Seven Dials Mystery • The Murder at the Vicarage • The Sittaford Mystery • Peril at End House • Lord Edgware Dies • Murder on the Orient Express • Three Act Tragedy • Why Didn't They Ask Evans? • Death in the Clouds • The A.B.C. Murders • Murder in Mesopotamia • Cards on the Table • Dumb Witness • Death on the Nile • Appointment with Death • Hercule Poirot's Christmas • Murder is Easy • And Then There Were None • Sad Cypress • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe • Evil Under the Sun • N or M? • The Body in the Library • Five Little Pigs • The Moving Finger • Towards Zero • Death Comes as the End • Sparkling Cyanide • The Hollow • Taken at the Flood • Crooked House • A Murder is Announced • They Came to Baghdad • Mrs McGinty's Dead • They Do It with Mirrors • After the Funeral • A Pocket Full of Rye • Destination Unknown • Hickory Dickory Dock • Dead Man's Folly • 4.50 From Paddington • Ordeal by Innocence • Cat Among the Pigeons • The Pale Horse • The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side • The Clocks • A Caribbean Mystery • At Bertram's Hotel • Third Girl • Endless Night • By the Pricking of My Thumbs • Hallowe'en Party • Passenger to Frankfurt • Nemesis • Elephants Can Remember • Postern of Fate • Curtain • Sleeping Murder
As Mary Westmacott:	Giant's Bread • Unfinished Portrait • Absent in the Spring • The Rose and the Yew Tree • A Daughter's a Daughter • The Burden
Short story collections:	Poirot Investigates • Partners in Crime • The Mysterious Mr. Quin • The Thirteen Problems • The Hound of Death • The Listerdale Mystery • Parker Pyne Investigates • Murder in the Mews • The Regatta Mystery • The Labours of Hercules • The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories • Three Blind Mice and Other Stories • The Under Dog and Other Stories • The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding • Double Sin and Other Stories • The Golden Ball and Other Stories • Poirot's Early Cases • Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories • Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories • The Harlequin Tea Set • While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
Plays:	Black Coffee • And Then There Were None • Appointment with Death • Murder on the Nile/Hidden Horizon • The Hollow • The Mousetrap • Witness for the Prosecution • Spider's Web • The Unexpected Guest • Verdict • Rule of Three • Fiddlers Three • Akhnaton • Chimneys
Radio (and Television) Plays:	Wasp's Nest • Three Blind Mice • Butter In a Lordly Dish
Other books:	The Road of Dreams • Come, Tell Me How You Live • Star Over Bethlehem and other stories • Poems • An Autobiography

bs:Agatha Christie's Poirot

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