Being Poirot

is for me much more than the character on the written page uh herculparo for me almost is a real person you're a detective i am the detective colonel curtis he is the person who was responsible for my life for 25 years the truth it has the habit of revealing itself i've got to know him i've lived him no one can always be right but i am always i am right it is so invariable it startles me he's my invisible closest and best friend they have been good days agatha christie's poirot premiered on television in 1989 a quarter of a century and 13 series later it's a global phenomenon watched by 700 million viewers in a hundred countries worldwide it's six in the morning thank you very much thank you and sean my driver is taking me to work i'm heading to pinewood studios to film the last series of paro this will be one of the hardest days of my acting life because today poirot will die i say old chap you're looking pretty awful don't you think i should call a doctor oh what good would that do no what would b would be getting into character is a very detailed process for me beginning from the moment i'm dressed and i get into the car with sean driving me because at that point i'm learning lines but then i go to makeup and then the serious business of the day begins for me david is a method actor he dieted for probably about nine months to lose i think about two stone i'm alright whereas in all the other films he looks like a a robust little man in curtin he looks like a little sack of bones in a suit but it'd be good if it helps him look really really ill agatha christie does the most extraordinary thing it's the only story in which you see poirot as a little old man and it's told and through the eyes of captain hastings hastings the key to it for me is that mustache once that mustache goes on that lip i think it's true to say that you will be speaking to her cupoiro make sure that it does not troop a little here yes yes that is better curtain puerto's last case was written by agatha christie in 1942 intended for publication after her death it was hidden in a bank vault for 30 years before publication in 1975. he knows he has to die yes he could never take the ignominy of being accused of a mother and then hung we all knew that the final scenes were coming up and we in a sense prepared but it was nevertheless most remarkable atmosphere huge sound stage at pinewood with a set built in centre of it the room itself which contained a bed and walls in which he was going to die was not crowded it was deliberately kept quiet and now i need to think but go down to breakfast my enemy the case it is ended and outside the set itself the rest of the crew was exceptionally quiet sheila david's wife was sitting beside the sound man to film it was one of the most extraordinary experiences to have or to play a man who dies forgive me it's a difficult day it's difficult because he feels reveals the character very deeply i think every time he shoots it it's going to take more out of him yes for a character actor of his intensity to lose someone he's been completely involved and absorbed in for 25 years is a personal tragedy terrible it was awful and i'll never forget it the hardest hardest moment of filming when curtin was published such was the sensation of the news of kwara's death that it made the front page of the new york times it showed the extraordinary impact of a strange little character who for many had seemed like a real person has been the most important role in my acting career you might think you know poirot but i'd like to show you what goes on inside those little gray cells along the way we'll find out why this remarkable little man is so loved around the world to begin to understand fuero we need to go back to the beginning i am on my way to the seaside town of torquay and remembering a visit i made 25 years ago he said to me i've been offered uh the role of poirot he said what do you think i said well let's take it i wouldn't hesitate i said the only piece of advice i give you is it's going to change your life and he said oh don't be so silly it will so this is a very special place agatha christie's house greenway was agatha christie's summer home from 1938 until her death in 1976. soon after i was cast as hero i was invited here to meet her daughter i remember one particular lunch i had with agatha christie's daughter roslyn and her husband anthony hicks and they said to me we want the audience to be able to smile with poirot but never laugh at him and that's why you have been chosen to play the role getting the approval of agatha christie's family was crucial for me before my life as puerto began today i've come back to meet her grandson matthew pritchard here we are in devonshire where poirot was actually born how do you think he came to be well of course that was long before my time but i'm told that a bus drew up in union square in uh in turkey and out of it trooped a whole busload of belgian refugees one of whom was a little man who surprisingly enough david looked a bit like you do you fancy a pint of beer if there's any left no mercy i cannot yet bring myself to enjoy the english public house my grandmother must have seen him and she must have thought well there's my detective fuero was introduced to the world in 1920 as a world war one belgian refugee in agatha christie's first book the mysterious affair it styles foiro was an extraordinary looking little man he was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity the neatness of his attire was almost incredible voila as a detective his flair had been extraordinary and he had achieved triumphs by unraveling some of the most baffling cases of the day the handwriting on this letter shouts your guilt you are a heartless mother agatha christie could never have guessed the poirot would become so famous appearing in over 50 short stories and 33 novels oh look now achieve is this a real one that that is a real one she would have taken this to the middle east she would have hammered out death on the nile somewhere near the pyramids in egypt on something like that something like that the more i know about agatha the more i learn about her that she was such a warm generous lovely person i just hope she would have liked what i did that's all she was very honest very candid indeed today agatha christie is revered in torquay so i can't visit here without loaning something very special to the museum oh i didn't believe it i knew some things were coming here i didn't know what it was and it's my flat my flat it's furrow's flat look my desk hello carl hello dave hello it's nice to see you hello amy very nice to see you lala fun take it out that's absolutely beautiful this is actually my prized possession i think i probably held that more than any other thing i've ever held in my life that is absolutely incredible it's still warm as well it is still but there's another reason we're here i'm meeting john curran an archivist who has found clues about poirot's creation in agatha christie's secret diaries and there look hercule yes written by agatha christie so you can see here the mysterious afraid of styles the plot was roughed out and then came her dilemma a detective story now what kind of a detective um so she says why not have a belgian refugee because the refugees were in most countries at that stage you're not selling onions are you bad your people come over here doing that a lot what kind of man should you be a little man with a somewhat grandious name could never get my tongue around french but i am belgian monsieur not french like many small identified men he would be conceited and he would of course have a handsome mustache yes i think the moment is right for the trimming of the moustache also the permitting and what about agatha's own relationship to the man himself well that was became a bit fraught as the years went on and she says here why why did i ever invent this detestable bombastic tiresome little creature i must be right because i am never wrong eternally straightening things forever boasting always twirling his mustaches and tilting his egg-shaped head and then she adds and i think this is quite funny anyway what is an egg-shaped head um have i ever seen an egg-shaped head when people say to me i guess i said this but you see all of those things that irritated her the public adore absolutely absolutely yes and i'm here to be witness to the egg-shaped head in 1920 agatha christie put on the page soon he was to become a star of stage and screen good evening everybody this is in the roaring twenties agatha christie's new detective hercule poirot was hugely popular after only four books he was set to appear on the london stage i wish i could get into doctor who's tardis and go back to sitting in a london theater in 1928 and witnessing for the very first time that the character of hercules came to life performed by charles lawton one of the greatest actors that we had in those days performing in a play called alibi which was an adaptation of the glorious novel the murder of roger aykroyd he was just like the detective of the novel walking into the room the actor's makeup is perfect the attitude the way of holding his head i have seen poirot tonight juaro himself actually appears on stage as himself in uh the novel in the film we made called three act tragedy i was certain that the person who murdered the reverend stephen babington and dr bartholomew strange must have been present on both occasions but not apparently so and in every novel she gives him his great what we call the summing up where he goes through all the people in the room making them feel guilty for a crime they never committed and pointing his finger at the guilty party it's his moment of theater god damn you what have you done what have i done it is you who have deceived me oh yes i think puero if he wasn't a detective i think he could have easily been a wonderful actor in 1931 three years after poirot first appeared on stage alibi was filmed for the cinema with the new poro sadly this film is now lost but other screen portrayals have survived oh wow isn't this fantastic so lights camera action the oldest surviving cuaro film is lord edgware dies from 1934 starring british actor austin trevor the moustache for pueiro is such an important part of his character and it was obviously a conscious decision by the film company not to have him with a moustache you mean to tell me that you think that you committed all these murders the chi i do not think my friend i know she did every one of them the accent is well you can hear it's english trying to be french but then that was the style then madame you tried to pull the wool over the eyes of hercules and i'm hanged if we can have that i remember watching murder on the orient express as part of my research when developing the character a repulsive murderer has himself been repulsively and perhaps deservingly murdered in the public's mind albert finney was the foir when that film came out puerto came alive for the public as he had never done before great film death on the nile and i i always thought that uh peter yustenov was just on the edge of becoming a really great poirot i am the nasty little heaves dropper madam 25 years ago i went back to agatha christie's novels to find her puero i got a file of paper a pen and i started reading every single story but i've never seen this little creation of hoku poirot portrayed as he was written in the book so i wrote a list of 93 little notes about his character abia tell me all that you have discovered what's the first one belgian not french has four lumps of sugar in tea or coffee sometimes three and once or twice five order and method are his gods in the little gray cells of the brain lies the solution of every mystery always wears a hat when going out in the evening air will wipe dirty seats or benches with his handkerchief before sitting down i had found his idiosyncrasies now i had to build his character i shut my eyes and i think one must always seek the truth from within for me it's the voice fuero is not really connected with his emotions he's connected with his head and therefore i decided to give him a head sound so i could be talking to you as david suchet my voice is coming up from my emotions now it is in my mouth and now it is going higher higher in my brain and i will put on his belgian french accent and then i will speak as our cupola chief inspector you really ought to look to your elocution swipe me there's nothing wrong with my lingo but something was still missing i went back to the books and found the final piece of the jigsaw his walk fuero crossed the lawn with his usual rapid mincing gate within his patent leather boots having found that of course i then had to learn how to do it and that's the walk that became synonymous with my prayer the same level of care went into the whole look of the television series here in london's charter house square the production team found the exterior location for poirot's home i really do love coming here this is of course where poirot lived the name of the block in the book is whitehaven mansions and he chose this particular block of flats not because of its location or anything but because it's symmetrical and that for pyro was le creme de la creme i've come here to meet puerto's first producer david how wonderful to see you brian eastman well this is so strange because i don't know whether i'm coming back into one of our sets or the real place and of course this is the real place but but the set was based on it wasn't it yeah well it was based on but you it was a decision wasn't it to have everything set in the 30s yes because she wrote the pyro novels over a period about 60 years and i felt that it was very important for a television show that we should be rooted in one particular era and in the end i thought well i'm actually going to root them all in one particular year yeah dress them like 1936. of course this isn't this isn't our flat in the center this is the real flat in this building we use the outside of one of these which one was it there well i i remember we always used to count down from the top one two three and there's that one isn't it with the vertical blinds i think that was the one mr barrow mr poro yes mr lemon yes there's a letter sir a letter from eliza dunn there and the wonderful thing that i felt that you did was you managed to capture the peculiarities alongside the lovability and i think that is why people love him but i had a wonderful team of actors around me didn't i that i was able to play off and they were able to have their own life in their own worlds good heavens hugh fraser as captain hastings uh you think oh hastings he's a bit of a dunderhead uh and maybe he isn't the brightest but hugh brought a fantastic intelligence to a man who apparently didn't have much right philip jackson who is always bested by puero right who's the victim and miss lemon uh um paulie moran just brought that beautiful eccentricity to it abduction addiction adultery see also under marriage bigamy see also under marriage bonds see also under marriage i know from the mail i get and from how people react to the series it's not just me it's the whole look it's production values the props the locations and i couldn't have been given a better place to live for the man i played there was one other element that played a crucial role in creating the mood of the series i've come to meet composer christopher gunning if i just hum but you know david you know one of many extraordinary things was that i presented brian eastman with four different tunes and he rang up the next day and he said well i've listened to all four of them and number four is my favorite wow and i was mighty disappointed because number one was mine why do you think i put number one at the beginning yeah and i can still remember it actually it went like it went something like that and that was my clear favorite but brian didn't even give that a thought and of course he was right and i was wrong how did you decide that should be one of your theme tunes for pyro what is the process for you i did read a script so i thought about what sort of music would take us back to the 30s a little bit and i phoned brian and asked me said no i'm getting terribly negative reactions to the music christopher and we're going to have to start again so what i did was to darken it all and i moved it into g minor so the alto saxophone could now play it in that register and the accompaniment could be down here and immediately it has a sort of gravitas yes that it didn't have when i was fiddling around up there that music along with many other elements defines the series but what made poiro such a popular character around the world where better to find out than visiting the country of his birth belgium pity emily couldn't come still i think she's right brussels is a far cry from israel her loss is maggie hercule poirot is not simply a legend in agatha christie's homeland the puerto films have been seen in over a hundred countries over the years i've received thousands of letters from all around the world viewers might know my face but not all have heard my voice of highness i had no idea puerto would be so big outside britain now i want to find out about his international appeal and where better to do so than the country of his birth ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard this service to brussels one of the aspects that really link us myself is that both of us are in a way outsiders although i was born in england most of my family on my father's side were from lithuania i certainly don't look like a typical englishman and that that was pyro as well in all the stories he's portrayed very vividly but we know very little about his past we know that he came to england retired head of the brussels police force but we know very little about where when he was a policeman there well para how does it feel being back in brussels again after so many years in the eye of my mind chief inspector i have never left well here we are most beautiful square in the world ah that's fantastic look at it the grand square in brussels i can actually remember filming here the chocolate box and yeah i played chess in this square i remember that the chocolate box was the only poirot story that took us back to his past as a police officer in brussels checkmate it's told in flashback so i had to lose over 20 years with the clever help of makeup and the hair piece i'd like um a box that i can fill with chocolates please there's a murder of course and belgian chocolates appear to be the cause of death yeah of course what we have to remember is that the chocolate might have tasted nice but you wouldn't have lived very long to savor the aftertaste my duties as a junior police officer involved my regular attendance at the court of the coroner and you agree the death of paul derola was treated by all those concerned as a matter of routine where i am now is in the palace of justice in brussels and of course foiro would have been very familiar with this place because this is the high court this is the highest court in the land supreme one moment if you please sean talia and myself we would be very happy to investigate further the derelict his methods of detection are very basic he's not a forensic detective he likes clues of course everything is in the clue inside this envelope are crumbs of chocolate i want you to tell me by your analysis exactly what they contain and whether or not they contain poison he's far more of a psychologist he's interested in people's minds when he speaks with you he always says i listen to what you say but i hear what you mean for it was you madame who killed your son in over 70 stories paris sold many intriguing cases but there was always one great mystery that eluded him it's a mystery that even i accurate will never be able to sow the nature of love i get lots of mail and people talking to me about puerto's sexuality why is everyone so afraid of sex uh why isn't he married uh does he fall in love where's poirot's romantic in interest in chocolate box puerto found the killer but lost his heart to his client i hope i haven't made things awkward for you okay and cuaro really becomes uh very attached in an emotional way to viojini perhaps this will say it for me she gives to him a little silver brooch if you'll notice when i play poirot as an older man he always wears there and that was given to him by his first love he would love to have been married but he knows himself no one could put up with his own weird eccentricities as a person but in actual fact although he says that i believe he knows that he couldn't put up with them cuaro was a lonely man but what he does with his life is solving crimes you got it wrong you bloody little frog firstly i am not a bloody little frog i am a bloody little belgian pueri was proud of being a belgian citizen but what do the locals think of him who better to ask than belgian crime writer stan lorisons well so how's brussels well brussels is wonderful but i i think i have to congratulate you because you won an award didn't you yeah i won the writing award well i won the hercule borough award the hercule which is the award for the best crime novel of the year fantastic do you think poirot is typically belgium he's typically belgium because he's got all the mannerisms of belgians no first of all they're short yes they're short they're good looking oh that's very kind what makes poirot so endearing his warmth you can't be mad at him do you get that from the page yeah yeah i mean that's what i found yeah you're speaking of puerto rico as though he was a real person he is he is who he says is fictional because end every night at home anywhere in the world there you are you made him a living person and that's your fault that's why people embrace you in the street take photography hey here is even without the moustache i'm always surprised to be recognized anywhere in the world well here i am in a police car with the police outriders as an escort and it's quite overwhelming apparently i'm going to meet somebody very important has to be important for this sort of welcome beautiful isn't it yeah beautiful building in fact i've been invited to meet the mayor of brussels and the chief of police we're going to find out what they think of belgium's most famous detective would you have liked hercules here now yeah we need him you need him yeah but with a moustache that can be arranged that can be put in the pace what do the belgians think of hercules they were proud because he solved matters the english couldn't solve yes and and your accent was not too bad thank you i wondered i'm very nervous meeting you i mean you could have said it was terrible and we're on television you know thank you very very much and you've given me such a lovely way it's a great honor to be here thank you chris they take quarrel to their hearts and you know agatha christie is widely read here and puerto is one of belgium's sons when i was studying in the character of cuaro i learned that there was a some speculation about where he was born i think agatha is actually quite clear where he was born he was born in spa in belgium however i'm on my way to a town but has claimed him in a sense to be one of its sons there's something distinctly odd about the small town of ellis els 30 miles west of brussels they like to think that pueri was born here there he is local historian pascal hyde can even show me a birth certificate to prove their claim so look here we are here is the birth certificate extreme essence here you have the name of your father yes and you have god leave your mother this is wonderful it is absolutely extraordinary there is my birth certificate born in elder on lavriel the first april fool's day some belgians might dispute the actual place of puerto's birth but there is no question about his commitment to his faith what's uh interesting for me is that um agatha christie makes him being belgian catholic so he is a religious man there is nothing in the world so damaged that he cannot be repaired by the hand of almighty god he believes that le bondiere the good god has put him on this earth to rid it of crime while he is still alive and able to do so so part of foiro's character is in doing his job he's actually serving god agatha christie's books reveal that poirot retired from the belgian police force and that his world was thrown into turmoil at the outbreak of the first world war he couldn't have actually fought in the trenches himself because i mean he was retired from the belgian police force and then the war started and then he became a refugee then began my second career it is reported that i am the most famous detective in england agatha christie created an outsider that was true to life his faith gave him his purpose but i think his humanity and warmth is the secret of the character's success but of all the crimes he sold there was one case that would challenge him to breaking point in the whole of furrow's career there was one story above all that seems to have captured the public's imagination and if you would be so kind as to book for me a passage tonight on the orient express i knew that even after 20 years of playing puerto this would be one of the most challenging performances of my morning career good morning welcome back nice to meet you okay thank you murder on the orient express was almost for me an untouchable obviously because it was such a famous film with albert finney and he won oscars so i had quite a lot to live up to i began researching murder on the orient express by reading the book on the original restored train to venice now i'm going back to relive fuera's most dramatic story and meet some old friends it's such a pleasure to see you again in 2008 i set out to make murder on the orient express a story about a very brutal murder and i wanted poirot to be as faithful to agatha christie's novel as possible oh my goodness me i'm back home well welcome back home it was an extraordinary experience to have been on the train before i made the film because i used that in the making of the film the murder on the orient express albert finney's was a wonderful film we had a different take on it we took it much more seriously in fact the actual tone of the book is serious i think the story has become legendary because to have 12 murderers judge jury and executioners was an extraordinary invention of hers in the story the train becomes stationary because of an avalanche to be stuck inside this narrow tube made it very claustrophobic that was the brilliance of her story so the guilty 12. where i am now is where the big summing up took place and this is where he makes his big reveal that not one person among them was the murderer but they were all guilty of putting in the knife no you behave like this and we become just savages in the street where jury is an executioner they elect themselves no it is medieval the rule of law it must be held high and if it falls you pick it up and hold it even higher he is thrown into deep anguish and thought and prayer as to what should he do even though he may sympathize with the crime is it his right to let them go or should he do what he knows his faith would tell him to do that's the story but where she set it is so unbelievably brilliant it was lovely to be on the train and in the carriage that hercule puerto slept in philly and to be able to eat in the restaurant in the 70 films i've played poirot murder on the orient express was the one which showed him in a turmoil of conscience we'd never seen before torn and tormented over what to do about this murder bye-bye thank you so much in the end he chooses to let them go on the human level he did the right thing but as far as his faith is concerned and what he did to him it really cost puerto understands the frailty of people their passions their hopes and their dreams it's a characteristic which i think is recognized and admired by viewers of the world over orient express was one of my biggest challenges as poirot now five years on i'm on the set of dead man's folly good morning how are you it's june 2013 and nine months since i filmed poirot's death in curtin i wanted to end 25 years on a high not his demise so we shot the final film out of sequence when i finish this film i will have shot every poirot story that agatha christie ever published you come on a set like this and you think well i don't have to do anything good morning good morning how are you so you've been in the fortune teller tent yes which we saw you go into last night and then there's a little scene in there a few cuts around and then i come out to meet the dutch girl i just mark background action and action i think the enduring power of poirot is obviously centers on david's performance but it's also careful casting very good direction brilliant art direction excellent locations and a great deal of thought going to make it the package that becomes agatha christie's mother that would you wear on your head it is a creation most beautiful like something from the royal ascot david is meticulous he's brought with him an eye of detail we have never been allowed to let our standards slip because david would pick us up on that brings you in it's an honor to work with david again and it must be an extraordinary experience for him and for his family i have to say i think the big shout out goes to the family you've got to say living with mr poirot for 25 years ladies stops if you see lady stubbs have you seen my wife lady stops does anyone see lady subs in some ways it's a farewell to the character we don't i don't know i think we're all kind of anticipating the last day and how emotional that might be agatha christie's summer home provided the inspiration for dead man's folly so as a wonderful tribute to puerto's creator we have come to devon where my final shot will be filmed i think it's a lovely way to end the series here now i feel pleased for david as well to to have shot all of them and to have adapted all the novels which i know is very important to him it's a triumphant day i won't see it in any other way as well i won't it's emotional of course it's emotional i won't pretend it's not emotional but i feel very elated happy they're filming the very last scene of the very last story of poirot that will ever be made with david suchet playing juarez voila it doesn't feel like 25 years if i look back it's really my children growing up my my family my it's a quarter of a century of my life and suddenly it's over i think it's a fact that he has applied utter dedication to one role most actors do a role put it down walk away from it david has never put it down 515 take what hey mark david's legacy is to have given the world a character that they can never forget to bring to life someone who's entertained people around the world for 100 years and to stamp that character into all our imaginations and that legacy on television will never fade ladies and gentlemen that is a wrap of paro after 25 years thank you thank you i would like to say to you thank you for having me i have enjoyed all the little adventures that i have solved to you all merci beaucoup i really do look back with great thankfulness to be given that role and have allowed me the privilege of playing him over a period of 25 years what a gift and thank you okay and everyone this way one two three it's fantastic one two three brilliant wonderful well done you

Channel: kokopico

Views: 2,204,245

Rating: 4.9052229 out of 5

Keywords: Being Poirot, Poirot, David Suchet, Hercule Poirot, Christopher Gunning, Agatha Christie's Poirot (TV Program), Curtain, Making of Poirot, Dead Man's Folly, Torquay

Id: FX3ITew9Mpw

Length: 47min 41sec (2861 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 02 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/TkSpam1234]

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[u/MidYouthCrisis96]

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