It is the little gray cells, mon ami!
February 8, 2017 6:21 PM   Subscribe

A few moments of appreciation for Agatha Christie's finest creation, fastidious Belgian Hercule Poirot -- and David Suchet, the man who most memorably brought him to life across 70 episodes and 13 series, all streaming on Netflix. Poirot was the first fictional character to have an obituary in the New York Times; he rated the front page.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (61 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite
 
My favourite Poirot was Suchet. My fondest memories are of me and my grandmother watching him together...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 6:23 PM on February 8, 2017 [9 favorites]


"Obituary" was waaaay too close to "David Suchet" on my screen for my liking.

Poirot is a fantastic series and I'm procrastinating on watching the last few episodes just because I don't want to be out of them forever (especially now that Netflix dropped Columbo and Murder She Wrote + I'm out of non-gory/flashy mystery shows to watch afterwards)
posted by flatluigi at 6:24 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]


One would think that if you saw Hercule Poirot getting on your boat/train/airplane/camel, you'd postpone your murder plans. Mais non!
posted by betweenthebars at 6:25 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]


I am comfort-watching on Netflix like WHOA to escape from reality. My mom loved Suchet's Poirot and we used to watch it together when I was little. I never saw the last few series so I am looking forward to it!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:26 PM on February 8, 2017 [6 favorites]


I remember when he died. My Mom and Grandmother were big Christie fans and it was big news in my household.
posted by octothorpe at 6:27 PM on February 8, 2017


I'm shocked to learn there are only 70 episodes! How is this possible, given that it seems to be on television literally 24 hours a day?
posted by something something at 6:29 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


"It must be tiresome, being right all the time"

*hmph* "I do not find it so."
posted by fatbird at 6:37 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]


"I'll contact the French embassy!"

"THE BELGIAN EMBASSY!"
posted by fatbird at 6:38 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]


Poirot is a fantastic series and I'm procrastinating on watching the last few episodes just because I don't want to be out of them forever (especially now that Netflix dropped Columbo and Murder She Wrote + I'm out of non-gory/flashy mystery shows to watch afterwards)

I recently started Miss Fisher's Mysteries on Netflix which scratches the same itch as Poirot for me, though it's much more liberal with the blood special effects.
posted by audi alteram partem at 6:42 PM on February 8, 2017 [10 favorites]


My favourite Poirot was Suchet.

I have to wonder if this is even a competition. As much as I love the likes of Peter Ustinov, Alfred Molina and Albert Finney, there's just no comparison. And as for Branaugh's planned take on the famous Belgian, well...... we'll see, mon ami.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]


The first audiobook I remember listening to on my own was Suchet reading Murder on the Orient Express. My grandparents took me to see The Mousetrap and kept trying to get me to figure it out by saying I should look at everyone's pants. And The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was spoiled for me by, of all things, a French textbook. (It is the second book I remember being spoiled for me, the first was The Last Unicorn and I hate spoilers still, 25 years later.)
posted by jeather at 6:44 PM on February 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


*dies*
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [41 favorites]


I know it's heretical, but I prefer the Albert Finney Murder on the Orient Express for the telling of the story. I do like the Suchet portrayal for the self contained mysteries/stories.
posted by Hasteur at 6:55 PM on February 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


"have never seen this series and this looks like a perfect thing to dig into this weekend."

DUUUUUUDE accents + period costumes is Poirot all the way down to his spats! (The series design, with the Art Deco and the 30s, is just gorgeous.)

It's interesting to read about how Suchet prepared for the character; he read the entire canon, noted every physical description of Poirot, and carried around a list of 93 particular mannerisms. And wore a lot of padding! He talks about striving to make him believably eccentric and truly charming, not just a caricature (which I think other actors have done with him), and he succeeds.

I've decided my career goal is to be the straight-man sidekick of a famous British detective, like Watson or Hastings. You seem to just need to serve in the British army overseas somewhere, be well-read but not too high-brow, and drive the motorcar. (It seems to come with inherited family money and a lot of free time.) A little time travel and I can do all that!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:56 PM on February 8, 2017 [20 favorites]


I didn't realize this was on Netflix? THANK YOU. I love Poirot so much, and also find it oddly calming.
posted by corb at 7:18 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]


All fans of classic detectives owes it to themselves to watch the parody movie Murder By Death.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:39 PM on February 8, 2017 [12 favorites]


Oh man! We've been watching Poirot nearly every night! Probably also as a distraction from, er, you know.

My girlfriend never watched it growing up, so for her they're all new episodes. For me, it's a return to my childhood: I have so many fond memories of watching Mystery! on PBS as a kid, and Poirot was always my favorite (although for whatever reason I remember wanting to be Captain Hastings -- watching now as an adult, I have to wonder why).

In fact, we loved Poirot so much that my sister wrote a fan letter to David Suchet when she was, I think, eight. He responded with a long and lovely personal letter to her (all I remember of it offhand is that he said "you're much younger than most of my fans..."). So my family and I have always had this fondness for Poirot, and for David Suchet, and it has been an absolute joy to be able to share it with my partner.

Thanks for a great post!
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [16 favorites]


Also, watching the titles for Mystery! again fills me with nostalgia -- and also probably helps explain why I was such a weird, gothy little kid, haha. I remember watching those credits as a very small child and thinking "wow, I want to see more things like THAT."
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:53 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]


I really missed Hastings, Japp, and Lemon when they moved away from them. I understand I think why they did, but I really liked their chemistry.

And seriously way to make me reread the op multiple times just to make sure it a was suchets obituary.
posted by Carillon at 7:57 PM on February 8, 2017


I love this series as well. Like others, I find it calming and lovely to watch. I periodically binge it on Netflix and honestly can't just watch one at a time. But, I do have to say I find it annoying at times with the save the rose of English young womanhood vibe that Christie tends to take, so I have learned to skip a few episodes. Also, don't even get me started about Zoe Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver! (Actually ZW in anything, consistently awesome.)
posted by Belle O'Cosity at 8:14 PM on February 8, 2017


Mea culpa on scaring anyone with the obit! I was just so charmed that a fictional character's obit made the front page of the NYT.

We might need to FanFare this and all binge-watch together. (By series, probably?)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [7 favorites]


"In fact, we loved Poirot so much that my sister wrote a fan letter to David Suchet when she was, I think, eight. He responded with a long and lovely personal letter to her (all I remember of it offhand is that he said "you're much younger than most of my fans...")."

Both parts of this are among the most charming things I've ever heard!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:09 PM on February 8, 2017 [13 favorites]


We might need to FanFare this and all binge-watch together. (By series, probably?)

I'm, like, so there!
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 9:34 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]


Thank you so much for the reminder of this excellent series.
posted by rtha at 9:45 PM on February 8, 2017


I've been devouring Hercule Poirot novels and short stories recently and there's something just very comforting about them.
posted by CarolynG at 9:53 PM on February 8, 2017


I did the thing in fanfare, so everyone get your binge-motor running! (I made it books included because the last one was published in 1975, we can assume anyone who cares to has managed to read them by now, and anyone who's just watching the show from 1989 probably won't mind the comparisons if anyone offers them.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:14 PM on February 8, 2017 [4 favorites]


Some remarks about enjoying his accent here. I presume they mean his portayal of Poirot. He came to Australia last year to perform a role in a play called The Last Confession. When he was promoting the play on Australian radio, you wouldn't recognize his voice. He's from London, not Brussels.

I reflected at the time that he came from the same thespian tradition as Hugh Laurie, who surprises some with a British accent sometimes. He doesn't even have a limp. He's not even a doctor! Next you'll tell me Suchet isn't a real sleuth.

This is the talent you can't get from looking at headshots, casting people IN HOLLYWOOD. There is a true artistry and virtuosity to being a chameleon. Laurie began his career doing British comedy, now he records his country music in Nashville. But David can do comedy too:

The inspector is lost in thought. Beyond his endless eyes pieces of the puzzle are crawling into place. He reaches into his breast pocket. What is it? It must be the final clue! It's, tiny scissors? He trims a single errant hair from his otherwise flawless moustache.
posted by adept256 at 10:22 PM on February 8, 2017


I went through a phase around 11 or 12 where I just devoured every single one of Christie's Poirot novels. (I was especially fond of the stories that included Hastings.) However, I'd never watched any TV/film adaptations, mostly because I was so fond of the original stories and I wasn't sure how I would feel about seeing someone play Poirot.

But it sounds like this series with Suchet as Poirot is worth trying out, and I've really been in the mood for something distracting and not horribly depressing to binge watch, so thanks for posting this FPP.
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:49 PM on February 8, 2017 [3 favorites]


There is nothing, nothing, so comforting to me as Agatha Christie books. Except possible Sayer's Wimsey books, which scratch the same itch (and have the added bonus of getting better and better, while allowing the character to grow and deepen over time!).

And because I can, here are the Marple rankings I carry in my head, and how I refer to them:

Margaret Rutherford: MEAN MARPLE.
Joan Hickson: EVIL MARPLE.
Julia McKenzie: Wrong Marple. (Very lovely, and nice indeed, but you are just not a fluffy chocolate box of a woman with a mind like a buzzsaw. I'm so sorry!)
Geraldine McEwan: Perfect Marple. The Marple to which all others must aspire, and leave wanting. Sweet and fluffy, disarming and pragmatic as hell. The Supreme Marple.
posted by pseudonymph at 11:48 PM on February 8, 2017 [11 favorites]


IIRC Suchet played Japp early on, not in these series.

I am most fond of these series. The early series and the later series are quite distinct in tone. I remember believing on initial airings that Suchet's Poirot was in part an answer role, of sorts, to Jeremy Brett's Holmes, a serious attempt by another gifted artist to treat Poirot as the equal and equivalent of Holmes, in part by emulating the fanaticism with which Brett crafted his incarnation of you-know-who.

The later series appear to bear this out in part, with their generally darker sensibility and what I see as a successful attempt to show us something more of Poirot than an amusing little round man. I am unfamiliar with Christie's texts and thus cannot comment on the degree to which this adheres to or diverges from the source material.

I do feel as if in the later work the effort to, I guess, modernize his psychology, while reasonable and not at all out of keeping with things others have done both with the character of Poirot and that of Holmes, including the Granada series in the latter respect, is somewhat at odds with what I take to have been the source material. It's just a hypothesis, mind. I really do enjoy the later works.
posted by mwhybark at 12:38 AM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]


By the way, I recently found out that Pauline Moran, who played Miss Lemon, played bass in an all-female rock band called the She Trinity in the 60s.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:43 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]


Oh, and do take a moment to savor the beautiful period literacy of those original animated titles! The transparent pointy planes floating about Poirot's head are an artistic concept first enunciated by Italian Futurism, variously translated as vortices or planes of force. It's more or less some bunkum but they are roughly period appropriate and as far as I know the only animated instance of the artistic device. There was a slightly later permutation of the tendency based in London that actually went by the name Vorticism.

I must unfortunately note that Italian Futurism was later associated with Italian Fascism, specifically due to its' celebration of modern warfare and armed conflict as exponents of modernity.
posted by mwhybark at 12:49 AM on February 9, 2017 [6 favorites]


Eyebrows, I too panicked, but how lovely to have a living tribute! My teen daughter and I watch these together as a special treat, when busy lives allow. I think Poirot is so calming right now because the series imagines a world where an immigrant who is both somewhat non gender conforming and non assimilating can fight injustice with facts and smartness, and everyone loves him. It's a delicious fantasy.
posted by Malla at 4:37 AM on February 9, 2017


Perfect timing. I just started watching Poirot on Netflix. Suchet's acting lifts even the weaker episodes.
posted by KaizenSoze at 4:39 AM on February 9, 2017


Disappointingly, Poirot doesn't seem to have yet made it to Netflix UK.
posted by A Robot Ninja at 4:52 AM on February 9, 2017


Poirot was our space-out series for several months; at the end of the day we'd put on an episode and half-pay attention, half-work on projects or fart on the internet or whatever. I couldn't tell you the plot of a single episode, but damn I love that show.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:58 AM on February 9, 2017


All fans of classic detectives owes it to themselves to watch the parody movie Murder By Death.

You should not speak with an accent when you know I am so hungry.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:52 AM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


Love Poirot, it would be fun to do the series on Fanfare.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:03 AM on February 9, 2017


I am very thankful for this post, but I am also going to be a voice of polite dissent, because while I enjoy Suchet’s performance as Poirot, I disagree VIOLENTLY with so many of the production choices made throughout the series that I sometimes turn it off in a huff and have to take a break.

This is because the show often leaves out or glosses over the thing I love best about Poirot: how incredibly subversive he is, how easily he diagnoses and manipulates the prejudices of people he meets, and how willing he is to bear humiliation (and even perform it) in order to ultimately reach justice.

The books and short stories are full of it— how he switches his affect seamlessly depending on the person he is interviewing. How he drops extra French phrases in his speech when he can tell it will result in a John Bull-type underestimating him. How he shamelessly plays the “foreign roué” if he needs to find out a specific detail about a young woman in the investigation.

The show leans too hard on his ridiculousness (in my view), and leaves out how much of that ridiculousness is performance in order to disarm. Too many episodes end with Japp, Hastings, and Miss Lemon quietly giggling over Poirot’s oversize ego or his dandiacal fastidiousness, without any of the comeuppance that always allays these moments in the books. Those characters sneer fondly in the books, but they are always proved wrong for doing so. The show often leaves them smirking, and then the credits run.

I also remain mortally offended about the way the show cast the Countess Vera Rossakoff. She is supposed to be LARGER THAN LIFE with masses of hair, bosoms, ornate and ostentatious movement and clothes, dramatic exclamations, seductive and passionate looks, and on and on. The books play frequently with the visual joke of the voluptuous drama queen aristocrat and her passion for the small, neat man with the mustaches.

But on the show? She was tiny and mousy and quiet. It was unbearable. The passion of Hercule Poirot’s otherwise orderly life, and they made her unrecognizable! It is too cruel.

My other main frustration with the series is that all the stories seem to take place in a sort of vague “early 20th century” England, instead of at particular times and during particular geopolitical moments. The books that are set post-WWI contain specific commentary about the war, and most of it gets lost. The books in the lead up to WWII, during the war, and following the war, same deal. I know the show has to cut certain things out for the sake of time, but it is very frustrating to see a plot that once hinged on “WWII ace fighter pilot comes home and struggles to readjust to civilian life” turned into “random guy shouts for no reason in 1935”. Plus, most of the racism in the tv series is played as a joke, whereas it is intentionally shown as a true strain of ugliness and hidden aggression in the books.

Anyway, sorry for being a malcontent. I JUST LOVE POIROT SO MUCH YOU GUYS.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:47 AM on February 9, 2017 [19 favorites]


I was just so charmed that a fictional character's obit made the front page of the NYT

I felt much the same way on seeing Norman Gunston win a Gold Logie.
posted by flabdablet at 6:56 AM on February 9, 2017


This is because the show often leaves out or glosses over the thing I love best about Poirot: how incredibly subversive he is, how easily he diagnoses and manipulates the prejudices of people he meets, and how willing he is to bear humiliation (and even perform it) in order to ultimately reach justice.

Re reading Poirot in anticipation of the series has me delightedly confirm your read, and add more. It's really revolutionary- like the woman who he thinks is just hysterical, until she is found dead. He reproaches himself with "I thought her statement artificial" - I can't help but read a call to take women more seriously all through.
posted by corb at 8:07 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]


I have to go along with Agatha Christie, who reportedly liked Marple better than Poirot, though she wrote more poirot because that's what her fans wanted.
posted by Flexagon at 8:32 AM on February 9, 2017


I can't help but read a call to take women more seriously all through.

Definitely-- another element that I think gets obscured in the show (not so much in the plots, but in the subtle conversational moves Poirot makes to understand women's perspectives). Both Poirot and Miss Marple are frequently able to solve mysteries because they listen to women, while Japp and Hastings disregard women's accounts as pointless gossip.

Many of the mysteries end up being solved because of a "wrong" hatpin or hat size, or knowledge of how women lose weight, or fashion details about a shade of lipstick. Poirot understanding fashion isn't just because he's a dandy-- he knows it is a code that women speak, and so he has to understand it in order to understand the investigations he undertakes. He takes women seriously, and it often startles the women he's talking to-- as well as his misogyny pals. (One of the reasons Hastings Is Always Wrong is because he doesn't think of women as people, but as ~~WOMEN~~, and so he can't actually listen to them and hear the substance of what they are saying. You can't actually investigate someone up on a pedestal.)
posted by a fiendish thingy at 8:38 AM on February 9, 2017 [8 favorites]


... I still say Miss Marple is the best!
posted by tavella at 9:25 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]


MetaFilter: dandiacal fastidiousness

a fiendish thingy, I'm really enjoying your contributions to this thread.
posted by ZaphodB at 9:32 AM on February 9, 2017


I also find the Suchet shows incredibly soothing! I did watch the early ones with my parents (and it turns out Mr. Moon did too); I haven't watched them in the last few months but it does seem like a nice escapist balm for these terrible times. Thanks for posting/setting up the FanFare!
posted by n. moon at 9:37 AM on February 9, 2017


Interesting points! I must politely disagree about his ridiculousness, though. Watching the show now as an adult, I identify strongly with the character's eccentricities. I'm fairly OCD (in the actual, diagnosed way) and while there are knowing smiles at his expense, he always seems to be the one who gets the last laugh. I've gotten very used to those little chuckles at my expense, and people always think they're not noticeable - they are. What I love about Poirot, the TV character anyway, is that the other characters smirk, but I think he notices and simply doesn't care. Maybe it's projection on my part, but I read an element of "laugh all you like, but who solved the case?"
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:40 AM on February 9, 2017 [3 favorites]


I actually agree with you, shapes that haunt the dusk-- I think Suchet plays it right, which is that Poirot doesn't care what people think. My main issue is that I feel like the show often wraps up by narratively urging the audience to be on team Japp/Hastings/Lemon, instead of leaving us with Poirot's quiet satisfaction and Belgian version of "haters gonna hate." I dislike it because of the direction and the editing, not the performances.

I'm thinking of a few episodes in particular-- there was one where they were in a wax museum, and there was a Poirot mannequin, and Hastings and Japp pretended not to know who it was and then laughed together when Poirot walked away in a huff.

Part of why that trope bothers me is because ANOTHER thing I like about Poirot is how much the books interrogate "being a good sport" and "not tooting your own horn" as forms of Englishness that are presumed to be inherently good and right, but which Poirot finds decidedly odd and alien. He is always trying to help Hastings see that his cultural biases are biases, not fundamentally true characteristics of the best of humanity. Poirot often offers these dry little digs at the fundamentals of British Imperialism and the White Man's Burden, but no one around him ever understands what he's talking about. Text Japp and Text Hastings may make fun of Poirot's ego, but Christie constructs those instances so that the reader's attention is actually drawn to how "lookit the ego on him!!" is, in itself, an act of ego. I feel like the show does do that sometimes, but not as often as is warranted.

(thanks ZaphodB!)
posted by a fiendish thingy at 9:50 AM on February 9, 2017 [4 favorites]


Also, there is a scene where he is doing the dishes with Hastings, and he keeps inspecting plates and sending them back to be re washed. I saw that scene and I was like I do this! It may have been written for humor, but it does mean something to me to see a character who behaves like this and still retains his sense of dignity (unlike some "obsessive compulsive detective" characters I have seen).
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:00 AM on February 9, 2017


Also, I laugh uproariously at all those obsessive moments, or when he says things like "one can tell when one is on the decline." I see myself in this character so much, and it's always a knowing laugh. I don't want to pull the armchair diagnosis and say that he has the same problems I do, but he certainly behaves like me. The humor I see in that is almost liberating, especially when his quirks inevitably work in his favor. It's a joy to laugh at myself through this character.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:06 AM on February 9, 2017


I love Poirot so much and first discovered him when I borrowed my grandmother's (gigantic to me at the time) hardcover collection of Five Complete Hercule Poirot Novels (Murder on the Orient Express / Thirteen at Dinner / The ABC Murders / Cards on the Table / Death on the Nile); I was probably too young to be reading them but man, when I got to the soltution of Orient Express, there was no way I was returning that book until I was finished with them all.

I took a class about the arts in London in college, the conclusion of us was spending our break between Thansgiving and Christmas in the city going to exhibits and shows every day. Because of this, I saw David Suchet and Diana Rigg* in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and after the show, Mr. Suchet came back to the hotel where our whole class was speaking and spoke to us while we all had wine. So when I tell you about how I had toasted my 22nd birthday with David Suchet and a glass of sherry in a tiny breakfast room in a British hotel, I swear to god I am not making it up.

* I loved both The Avengers and she was hosting Mystery, which I grew up loving too, by this point too, so this was also a big deal obviously.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:35 AM on February 9, 2017 [15 favorites]


(Okay, turns out I'd actually told part of this story in the Edward Albee obit thread which makes me feel much better because I couldn't believe I'd not told this story on Metafilter before)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:37 AM on February 9, 2017


I have such a crush on Captain Hastings.
posted by JanetLand at 1:39 PM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]


It's interesting to read about how Suchet prepared for the character; he read the entire canon, noted every physical description of Poirot, and carried around a list of 93 particular mannerisms.

I shall never forget David Suchet saying that he always remembered to walk "as if he had a grape between his buttocks" to get the authentic Poirot gait!

This is a lovely thread. Poirot was my favourite and like others here, I used to sit down to watch with my Granny and my Mum. I cannot hear the opening soundtrack without tearing up and thinking fondly of my Granny who is no longer with us.
posted by JenThePro at 2:01 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]


For audiobook listeners: David Suchet has read the NIV Bible aloud. Got me through about six months of commuting. Highly recommended.
posted by sy at 5:27 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also, for people like me who need something soothing to watch in the evenings because they used to read news in the evenings but now if they do that they can't sleep: there's lots of footage of competitive snooker on youtube.
posted by sy at 5:29 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is because the show often leaves out or glosses over the thing I love best about Poirot: how incredibly subversive he is, how easily he diagnoses and manipulates the prejudices of people he meets, and how willing he is to bear humiliation (and even perform it) in order to ultimately reach justice.


Have you checked out the later, long form stuff in the Suchet adaptations? I would say this gets to the heart of where he is trying to take the series.
posted by mwhybark at 5:55 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]


"how easily he diagnoses and manipulates the prejudices of people he meets ... The books and short stories are full of it— how he switches his affect seamlessly depending on the person he is interviewing. How he drops extra French phrases in his speech when he can tell it will result in a John Bull-type underestimating him. How he shamelessly plays the “foreign roué” if he needs to find out a specific detail about a young woman in the investigation. ... Too many episodes end with Japp, Hastings, and Miss Lemon quietly giggling over Poirot’s oversize ego or his dandiacal fastidiousness, without any of the comeuppance that always allays these moments in the books. Those characters sneer fondly in the books, but they are always proved wrong for doing so."

I disagree! I noticed right off, on my rewatch, how often he turns on and off his foreignness to disarm, and particularly how he charms women. And quite often Japp or Hastings, in particular, is the butt of the joke at the end of the story -- like the episode where everyone's worried about the cricket all episode, and they all think Poirot is ignoring it with his superior Belgianness, but at the end of the episode he gives a disquisition on English vs. Aussie cricket and the specific bowlers and so on, and Japp and Hastings are left amazed and chagrined. Hastings and Japp get to needle Poirot and tease him, but he always, always, get the last laugh, in every episode!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:24 PM on February 9, 2017 [5 favorites]


A tiny aside of admiration for the art of the teaser trailer, this absolute gem that ITV put out to herald the "final four", undertaking to recall Suchet's decades the role - in a single minute.
posted by nanojath at 8:26 PM on February 9, 2017


My girlfriend and I were just talking about Hastings, and I realized that when I read Wodehouse for the first time (which was recently), I think my visualizations of some characters was heavily influenced by him. "I say, old boy!"
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:50 PM on February 9, 2017 [2 favorites]


Good heavens! You owe it to yourself to put the old N to W in order to seek out the Fry and Laurie adaptations, what what old bean.
posted by mwhybark at 12:26 AM on February 11, 2017 [2 favorites]


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