Friday, January 09, 2009

More Poirot episodes?

From Digital Spy:

David Suchet has revealed that he wants to continue playing Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot until he has filmed the novelist's "complete works".

The 62-year-old confessed that he had experienced mixed emotions at the thought of leaving behind the Belgian detective that he first portrayed in 1989.

"I feel two emotions, great sadness to leave him, and 700 million people watch it throughout the world, but also terrific joy if I am given the opportunity to do the complete works," he said, as he accepted the Freedom of the City of London today.

"It really depends if the money is there because they might not have the funding. We are filming four episodes this year, which will leave six more to do and that will be the complete works. He doesn't exist after that."

The character of Hercule Poirot appeared in 33 novels and 51 short stories. Suchet has starred in more than 60 feature-length shows in the ITV franchise.

7 comments:

Kerrie said...

I like the sound of that. Maybe I can add viewing all of them to my Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.
http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com/search?q=Agatha+Christie+Reading+Challenge
That would really drive the hubby nuts!

Anonymous said...

Well, without wishing to provide any spoilers, he stopped existing because of an authorial device! (Not applied to Miss Marple.) I do think that Poirot got more tiresome in the later books, unlike Miss Marple who always seemed quite fresh. I found Poirot's faddishness a bit grating after too many outings.

Kevin Wignall said...

I saw him talk about this recently in another interview. Given that ITV have slashed their drama budget, telling producers that they'll pay 20% less for any drama (they also scrapped a new version of "A Passage to India" just weeks before filming was due to commence) one has to wonder if he'll see his wish fulfilled, particularly as I imagine the Poirot episodes must be quite expensive to produce.

Is my memory lagging, or am I right in saying Suchet hasn't played him in "Murder on the Orient Express"? It would be churlish not to grant him that, at least.

Anonymous said...

I find hard to credit this a "revelation", seeing as he's said this since practicaly the beginning... hope it gets done, though.

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

Kerrie. I admire your AC challenge and am inspired to do a Patricia Wentworth version sometime...

It was a shame about Passage to India.

AFAIK David Suchet has not done a tv version of 'Murder on the Orient Express' but has provided his voice for the pc game :).

Kerrie said...

I've decided to go one step further with the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge and create a monthly Carnival. http://acrccarnival.blogspot.com/
Karen you could point people to a Euro crime review or two if you wanted to.

Anonymous said...

Maybe D Suchet does not want to tread on the toes of Albert Finney, who played him in the film version (or the only film version of this book I've seen, in any event).