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Downloaded from
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There's nothing more British
than Agatha Christie.

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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Since the publication
of her first book 100 years ago,

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she's been delighting us with
fiendishly clever murder mysteries

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set in the charming villages
and grand homes of our nation.

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Yet it took someone quite un-British
to solve the crimes in her stories.

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Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective
with a brain like no other.

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'Agatha launched him
into the world a century ago,

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'and they've been
partners in crime ever since.

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'Like millions of others,
I adore them both,

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'but Agatha Christie,
just like Poirot,

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'didn't give much away.'

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And both seem to be,
well, mysterious cases.

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So now I want to turn
the investigation back onto them.

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'Agatha Christie
is the Queen of crime.'

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This master of storytelling.

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She is on it every time,
every page, every book.

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'And Hercule Poirot
was always by her side,

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'on page and on screen.'

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Hercule Poirot
is a private detective.

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Hercule Poirot is irresistible,
he has star quality.

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He has this extraordinary brain.

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Always I am right, it is
so invariable it startles me.

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'But how do they conquer
the world together?

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'With the help
of some famous faces...'

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Loosen your belts...
LAUGHTER

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..it's gonna get messy.

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'A host of experts...'

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She describes cleaning them
with a bit of dental equipment

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and her face cream.

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Weapons, wounds, trace evidence,
it's all there.

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'..access to her family
and their private archives...'

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I think she will always be here

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and while she's always here,
Poirot will be here.

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'..and the locations
that shaped Agatha's work.'

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This was nicknamed
"the best hotel west of The Ritz."

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'This is the story
of the greatest crime duo ever.'

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I think I Agatha Christie
and Poirot will be forever.

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No-one else has come close.
They just haven't.

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Agatha Christie was a Devon girl,

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she drew upon the county
of her childhood

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for so many of her stories.

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Creaky country houses,
the vicars on their bicycles,

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and the chocolate box villages
with a secret behind every door.

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It's not the obvious home
for a Belgian detective

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with a fondness for order
and cleanliness.

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But it's in Devon
that Agatha found Poirot.

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'Agatha Christie
was born in 1890 in Torquay,

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'a popular holiday spot
for wealthy Victorians.'

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Devon was a massive part
of her life,

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a part of her being, I think.

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She certainly felt happier
here than anywhere else.

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'Her family
lived in a large villa

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'with spacious grounds
on the edge of town.'

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That genteel, upper-middle-class
childhood that she had,

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it's there through the books.

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'Agatha's father died
when she was 11.

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'From this point on, she became
incredibly close with her mother.'

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Agatha Christie's home life
was a matriarchy

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that the women
were in positions of power

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and that the women
held a lot of importance.

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They're right there
and they have big personalities

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and they have the same desires
and needs as the men

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and I really,
I love that about her writing.

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'Agatha had a brother and sister,
10 and 11 years older than her,

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'meaning she grew up
largely in her own company.'

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She was like an only child, because
she spent so much time on her own

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and in her own world,
playing her own games.

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I'm an only child
and I know that, growing up,

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I didn't have anybody else
to play with.

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And making up stories
and acting out different scenarios

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and coming up
with different characters.

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'Although Agatha's mother

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'decided against
giving her a formal education,

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'she still found her own sources
of knowledge.'

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Agatha Christie
taught herself a lot.

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She was obviously
incredibly motivated,

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she was obviously incredibly clever,
incredibly imaginative.

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'By her late teens, Agatha
had started writing as a hobby.

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'Before long,
she had short stories and poems

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'published in local magazines,

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'but for her talent
to become a career,

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'it took a challenge
from her older sister.'

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I gather that she'd been reading
a lot of murder mysteries

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and saying, you know,
"I could do this,"

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and her sister said,
"Well, why don't you?"

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To get the best out of someone,
you need to be challenged,

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you need to be pushed
to become the best

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and I think it was interesting
seeing Agatha Christie

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being pushed by her older sister
to write a novel.

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'Even much later in life,

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'Agatha would describe
the origin of her career

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'as an accident.'

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Why are you so fascinated by crime?

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I don't know
that I'm really fascinated by it,

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I just began writing about it,

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then one continues,
doesn't one, usually?

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I always liked detective stories.

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'Agatha's debut novel,
The Mysterious Affair At Styles,

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'was published in the UK in 1921.'

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An immediate success,
it introduced the world to someone

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who would go on to be Agatha's
longest life companion,

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Hercule Poirot.

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A retired police officer
from Belgium,

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Poirot was like no other detective
seen before in fiction.

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He does drop in to Styles
perfectly formed.

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Poirot is incredibly methodical,
he's incredibly, obviously, clever.

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He's also meticulous,
he's also vain,

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but at the end of the day,
he has a twinkle

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and you respect him.

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Hercule Poirot is one
of the greatest creations

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in all literary fiction.
There's no question of it.

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'Agatha Christie
would write 33 novels,

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'three plays and 69 short stories
featuring Poirot.'

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She's sold on all four corners
of the earth,

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she's sold more books
than any other novelist.

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She's, you know,
been published in more languages

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pretty much than anyone,
it's a pretty extraordinary story.

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I imagine there is
a generation of crime writers

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that would hold Agatha Christie up
as their leading light.

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I'm the author of the Murder
Most Unladylike mystery series.

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My detective Hazel
has a lot to do with Poirot,

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and the logic puzzles they solve,

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the kind of very tight, enclosed
murder mysteries they solve

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are really, completely based
on Agatha Christie's mysteries.

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So I'm an author
who is really inspired by her.

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I am the author of four continuation
novels starring Hercule Poirot.

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I first discovered Poirot when I
read Murder On The Orient Express.

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It felt like
a sort of Eureka moment.

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I have loved him ever since.

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'Poirot is also the star
of a major Hollywood movie franchise

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'starring Sir Kenneth Branagh.'

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My name is Hercule Poirot,

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and I am probably the greatest
detective in the world.

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'Yet it's through the television
that most of us know Poirot.

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'From 1989 to 2013,

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'the iconic detective was beamed
into our living rooms every week

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'with David Suchet
taking the lead role.'

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The original series
was a huge Sunday night treat.

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Beautifully produced,
wonderful production values,

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a fantastic lead actor.

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It seems as if you have thought
of everything, Monsieur Doyle,

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except for one thing...

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Hercule Poirot.

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They've allowed us,
the televisual sort of generation,

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to enter into Agatha's world

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in a way that no-one
would ever have dreamt of.

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Me and Monsieur Poirot
have met before.

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There's no man's judgement
I'd sooner take than his.

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If I'm not greatly mistaken,
he's got something up his sleeve.

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Well, I will tell you this.

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If you arrest
Monsieur Alfred Inglethorp,

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it will bring you no kudos.

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The case against him
will be dismissed comme ca.

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It is about nostalgia,
it's about old England.

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It gives the audience
a sense of pleasure

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to see pretty countryside
and lovely costumes.

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I love the fact
that you can sort of smell

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the cigarette smoke in the air,

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you know when those women
walk into the room

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there will be a rustle of silk.

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I think we can agree
I'm not short on motive.

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Or opportunity.

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By your own admission,
you enter the compartment

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of Madame Ruth Kettering
and rifle through her possessions.

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Oh, you had the desire, Senora,
and the passion necessaire,

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to commit a crime of such atrocity.

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Est ca c'est la verite?

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'Through the long-running ITV
series, Poirot reached an audience

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'far beyond anything Agatha
could have imagined

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'when she introduced him
to the British public in 1921.

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'Like Agatha,
Poirot was formed in Torquay,

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'where locals are immensely proud
of their connection to both of them.

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'At the town's museum,
manager Carl Smith

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'has been given access to some of
Agatha's private notebooks

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'that reveal secrets of how she
created her stories and characters.'

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In front of me, I have
a copy of a handwritten article

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that was written
by Agatha Christie in 1938.

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"How did the character
of Hercule Poirot come into being?

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"It was the early autumn of 1914,

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"Belgian refugees
were in most country places.

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"Why not have a Belgian refugee,

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"a former shining light
of the Belgian police force."

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'During World War I, 250,000
Belgian refugees entered Britain,

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'many settling
in Agatha's county of Devon.'

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Her work always seemed to be organic
and coming out of a real scenario.

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And then she would sort of secrete
those people that she watched...

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in the characters that she wrote.

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Belgium had a very special meaning
to the British.

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Poor little Belgium was a phrase
that was used all the time.

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British middle-class families
knitted socks for Belgian children.

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It was a thing, you know,
that everyone would have recognised.

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They had a victimhood,
so there was a dignity about Poirot.

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He wants to know why we have
to speak English all of the time.

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He finds it tiring.

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Hmm.

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Because, Monsieur Van der Stadt,
in this country, we are the guests.

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If we are to gain
the confidence of the natives,

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we must learn their ways.

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'Poirot was quite unlike
anyone else he met

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'on his adventures through Britain.'

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I see you have joined the cavalry?

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Poirot is not
a pint-and-pork-scratchings man.

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Let's face it.

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I say, do you fancy a pint of beer
if there's any left?

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Non, merci.

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I cannot yet bring myself
to enjoy the English public house.

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'Poirot was not only different to
the other characters in her stories,

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'he was also quite unlike
Agatha herself.'

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"He should be very neat,
very orderly.

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"Is that because I'm such
a wildly untidy person myself?"

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I think were seeing something

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of a mirror-image of Agatha Christie
in Poirot.

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That were seeing lots of things

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that perhaps are not important
to her or not strengths of hers

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seem to manifest themselves
in Poirot.

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She is incredibly messy,
he is incredibly precise.

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So she probably created him that way
to be completely outside of her.

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Hastings, you dressed in haste,
your tie is to one side.

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'Agatha also created
Captain Hastings,

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'Poirot's
long-suffering side kick,

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'who struggled to keep up
with the meticulous investigations.'

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Did it not strike you as peculiar...

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He's not the sharpest tool
in the box,

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but, I mean, compared to Poirot,

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anyone would be lacking
in a few grey cells, I think.

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I'm pleased of you, Hastings.

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You have a good memory and have
given to me, faithfully, the facts.

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But of the order in which
you present them, I say nothing.

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Truly it is deplorable.

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Hastings tolerates Poirot's
idiosyncrasies, too,

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which can become
a little tedious, sometimes.

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'Poirot's biggest idiosyncrasy
was his obsession with tidiness.

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'Although tedious to some, it made
him an extraordinary detective.'

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He's a character that you kind of
you're slightly frustrated by

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because you just think,

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00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,800
"Just let it go, just let go,
just let go and stop being so held,"

239
00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:26,960
but at the same time the way
he gets to his point

240
00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:28,960
and the way he gets
to the conclusion

241
00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:29,960
is just very, very entertaining.

242
00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:31,960
'In his debut outing,

243
00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:35,960
'he makes a key breakthrough by
rearranging items on a mantelpiece.'

244
00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:37,960
I remember that
when you and I were together

245
00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:39,800
in the room of Madame Inglethorp,

246
00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:42,960
'that I already
straightened the ornaments.

247
00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:46,800
'Now, if they were
already straightened,

248
00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:48,960
'there would be no reason for me
to have to straighten them again.'

249
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:51,960
Something that would have connected
to the murderer with the crime.

250
00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:56,960
Unless someone in the meantime
had touched them.

251
00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,320
He's a man that watches things very
closely, he's like a great chef.

252
00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:02,960
Because it is all about
looking into the detail

253
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:04,960
and seeing things
that other people can't see.

254
00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,960
Agatha Christie sums up
one of the greatest characters

255
00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:11,960
of all fiction in three words,

256
00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:13,960
"little grey cells."

257
00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:17,960
A great detective
needs a great brain.

258
00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:19,960
And that's what Poirot has.

259
00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:21,960
Oh, yes.

260
00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:25,960
The little grey cells
have done well today.

261
00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:35,960
For 100 years, audiences and readers
have been thrilled by Poirot's

262
00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,320
quirky yet meticulous
approach to crime solving.

263
00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:43,160
We always know Poirot will catch the
murderer, explain how they did it,

264
00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:46,320
and perhaps tidy a few mantelpieces
along the way.

265
00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:50,960
But in his first outing,
Agatha didn't give him an easy ride.

266
00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:52,960
She drew on
her own experiences in war

267
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:54,960
to devise a method of killing

268
00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:57,960
that could deceive
even the keenest of eyes.

269
00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:12,000
In Poirot, Agatha Christie
had created the perfect detective.

270
00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,320
A Belgian refugee living in Britain,

271
00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:18,640
he studied every case
with a detached gaze of an outsider.

272
00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:20,960
And she gifted him
with a great brain.

273
00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,960
The little grey cells
of which he is so proud.

274
00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:28,960
But in her debut novel, Agatha
tested that brain to the limit.

275
00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:32,960
'In her first book,
The Mysterious Affair At Styles,

276
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,320
Poirot was confronted
with a murder victim

277
00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,960
who appeared to have been poisoned.

278
00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,480
Why did you want to know if
Mrs Inglethorp ate well last night?

279
00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:45,960
The contention of the present

280
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:49,960
is that Madame Inglethorp died
of the strychnine poisoning. No?

281
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,960
Agatha Christie likes a poisoner.

282
00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:55,640
She loves a bit of poisoning.

283
00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:57,960
Poison is a wonderful weapon for her

284
00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:01,000
because it is, to all intents
and purposes, bloodless.

285
00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,960
It is a clean death, it is something
that anybody, as well, can use.

286
00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,960
'Agatha picked up
her unique knowledge of poisons

287
00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:10,960
'while working as a nurse
in Torquay's military hospital

288
00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:12,960
'during World War I.

289
00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:16,960
'Forensic scientists and murder
mystery obsessive Carla Valentine

290
00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:19,960
'has researched Agatha Christie's
medical background.

291
00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:21,960
Agatha would have had
a baptism of fire.

292
00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:24,960
She would have seen things
that she had never seen before.

293
00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:30,640
Blood and gore, stitching,
amputations, bloody floors.

294
00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:34,640
It really was a huge
new experience for her

295
00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:37,960
and, you know, one that shaped
her character for years to come.

296
00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:41,960
'Before long,
Agatha was keen to move away

297
00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,960
'from the gruesome
front line of nursing.

298
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:47,960
'So she specialised
as a dispensary nurse,

299
00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:49,960
'preparing medication for patients.'

300
00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:52,960
So what she had to do
was she would mix powders,

301
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:55,960
and she would mix solutions,
and she would make pills, pessaries,

302
00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:59,960
ointments,
even, you know, medications.

303
00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:02,960
And it really was
a very specialist job.

304
00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:07,960
'In her debut Poirot story,

305
00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:10,960
'Agatha's poison of choice
was strychnine.'

306
00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,960
I would like your consent
to a postmortem, then.

307
00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:16,160
That's not necessary,
surely it was a heart attack?

308
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:17,960
Oh, no, I'm sorry.

309
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:23,960
Mrs Inglethorp showed classic
symptoms of strychnine poisoning.

310
00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:24,960
Can't be!

311
00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:27,960
'Although steadily
in large quantities,

312
00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:30,960
'it was an everyday medicine
if used safely.'

313
00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:33,960
The effect of it on the nervous
system, in small doses,

314
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:36,960
wouldn't kill you, but it would
sort of pep you up a little bit.

315
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:40,640
A lot of the time,
it would be even used by old ladies.

316
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:45,000
Everything in her life
seems to have been organic,

317
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:48,960
and she sees it, grabs it
and utilises it.

318
00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:54,960
She was so meticulous about writing
about poisoning and poisons,

319
00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:58,160
that the poison society

320
00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:01,960
commended her writing
about poisoning.

321
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:03,960
There, you see.

322
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:06,480
Already the strychnine
is beginning to precipitate

323
00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:08,320
and fall to the bottom.

324
00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:10,960
In a few hours,
it will form colourless crystals.

325
00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:12,960
Which remain at the bottom
of the liquid?

326
00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:16,960
Which remain at the bottom
of the liquid.

327
00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:18,480
'Poison would go on to be

328
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,960
'one of Agatha's
favourite methods of murder.

329
00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:22,960
'She killed five characters
with strychnine,

330
00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,960
'eight with arsenic,
and 18 with cyanide.'

331
00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:28,960
She clearly learnt as much

332
00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:31,480
as she could possibly learn
about poison

333
00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,960
and then dripped those
poisonous moments

334
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:38,960
into her novels and
her short stories forever after.

335
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,160
In the laboratory
on the previous afternoon,

336
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:44,960
you would have seen Caroline Crale
steal the poison.

337
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:47,960
Monsieur Blake had his back to the
room while he was talking to you,

338
00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:50,960
so it was perfectly possible
for you to see her.

339
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,960
The only person who could do so.

340
00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:56,160
'A few years
into her writing career,

341
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,960
'Agatha and her husband Archie
moved out of London

342
00:17:59,960 --> 00:18:02,960
'to the nearby commuter town
of Sunningdale.

343
00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:04,960
'Archie was a fan of golf

344
00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:07,960
'and enjoyed the towns courses
a little too much.'

345
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:10,960
I suppose that's
when things started to go wrong.

346
00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:15,960
The golf became a symbol, if you
like, of their diverging ways.

347
00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,960
She described herself
as a "golf widow."

348
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:21,960
'As Agatha's marriage
started to suffer,

349
00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:25,960
'she found comfort in
the clear logic of Hercule Poirot.

350
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,960
'In 1926, she published
her most celebrated story yet,

351
00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:33,960
'The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd.'

352
00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:36,960
Everything changed, really,
with The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd.

353
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:38,960
It still obsesses people

354
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:41,960
because it is probably
the perfect detective story.

355
00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:45,960
'In this rarely heard interview
from her family archives,

356
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,320
'Agatha reveals
how her perfect detective story

357
00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:49,960
'was one of the hardest to write.'

358
00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:52,960
CHRISTIE: These are the little
plots that tease at one,

359
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:55,800
one likes to think of,
one knows one is going to write.

360
00:18:56,960 --> 00:18:58,320
That was much like Roger Ackroyd...

361
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:01,960
which played about in my mind
for a long time

362
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,320
before I could get the details
fixed.

363
00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,960
I think we all agree
that The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd

364
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,960
is the ultimate detective story.

365
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:13,960
The best ever
piece of fiction of its kind.

366
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:17,960
POIROT: "My little book is about
the murder of Roger Ackroyd,

367
00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:19,160
"the events leading up to it,

368
00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:21,960
"the subsequenct
numbskull investigation

369
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,160
"and the final revelation,
to you alone, dear reader,

370
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:26,960
"of the guilty party."

371
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:32,960
'This game-changing book challenged
the rules of crime fiction.

372
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,960
'The murderer's identity
is so unexpected,

373
00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:38,320
'that it draws into question
every page,

374
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,960
'every word that has gone before.'

375
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,960
As we move towards
the end of the novel,

376
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,960
she performs a fantastic trick,
but she does it so well

377
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,960
that she absolutely misdirects
the reader

378
00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,960
in a way that really very few people
would be able to anticipate.

379
00:19:54,960 --> 00:20:00,320
That was the story that put Agatha
way up on that plinth.

380
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:03,000
And no-one will ever get her down
because of that book.

381
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,320
POIROT: "The true stories
of these murders most dreadful

382
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:08,960
"must, for the moment,
remain a secret.

383
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:13,960
"The last favour, if you will,

384
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,960
"to a man that I once looked on
as a friend."

385
00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,960
The shock of who the murderer is

386
00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:24,960
resounds to this day
through the whole genre.

387
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,000
Once she did that, other detective
writers just bowed down and said,

388
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,960
"She is the Queen, there is...
none of us can touch her."

389
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,800
And if you haven't read it,
I'd urge you to read it.

390
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:36,960
It's wonderful.

391
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,160
And see if you think
you can tell who did it,

392
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,480
and the chances are you won't.
LAUGHTER

393
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,960
'As Agatha's career
reached a new peak,

394
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:47,960
'her private world was crumbling.

395
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:49,960
'Husband Archie revealed

396
00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:52,960
'he had started a relationship
with a younger woman.

397
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:56,640
'And, around the same time,
Agatha's mother died.'

398
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:58,800
In the winter of 1926,

399
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:00,960
Agatha Christie
was at her lowest ebb.

400
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:02,960
But then her life took a turn

401
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:04,960
as dramatic as anything
in her stories,

402
00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,960
and her private turmoil
became public.

403
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:11,960
'On December 4th,
her car was found abandoned

404
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:14,960
'at a beauty spot in Surrey
on the edge of the North Downs.

405
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,960
'Before long, police
were investigating the incident

406
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:21,480
'as a missing persons case,
and it was front-page news.'

407
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:23,960
The tabloids must have just
not been able to believe it

408
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:26,960
because it's just like,
it could have been one of her books.

409
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:28,960
You've got a woman missing,

410
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,960
a car parked on the North Downs
in the middle of nowhere,

411
00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,160
you've got a husband
who's run off with a younger woman.

412
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:37,960
She's on the front page
of every newspaper for gossip.

413
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:41,960
You know,
she's basically being trashed

414
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:43,960
by the poor behaviour
of her husband.

415
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,960
'Agatha Christie biographer
Laura Thompson

416
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:48,960
has returned
to the Surrey countryside

417
00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:51,320
where police and public
searched furiously for Agatha.

418
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:55,960
These are the police files
from the case.

419
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:57,960
"She might have fallen down

420
00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:01,000
"one of the numerous gravel pits
that abound there.

421
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,960
"Or she might have been, as was
strongly suggested to the police,

422
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,960
"the victim of a serious crime."

423
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:12,960
The police wondered whether Archie
Christie might have been involved.

424
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:14,960
Could he have made her disappear?

425
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,960
I mean, after all,
when it comes to murder,

426
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:19,960
the domestic murder
is the most common murder.

427
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:23,160
'But the grim headline everyone
had been braced for never came.

428
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:27,960
'Because, on the morning
Agatha's car was found abandoned,

429
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,960
'she had in fact made her way
to London and, from there,

430
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:32,960
'she caught a train home
to Harrogate in Yorkshire.'

431
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:38,000
We sort of gathered
that she had lost confidence

432
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,960
in herself and her marriage,
and was despairing,

433
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,960
and thought "To hell, I don't want
to be anywhere near him and home,"

434
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,960
and goodness knows,
I know exactly how that feels.

435
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:51,160
'She took a room in a spa hotel
then known as the Harrogate Hydro.'

436
00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:53,320
I think her heart was broken.

437
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:55,960
So the crisis that she was in
at that time,

438
00:22:55,960 --> 00:23:00,960
I think, absolutely makes
perfect sense of her running away.

439
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:05,960
'During her stay, Agatha appeared
to be a normal hotel guest.'

440
00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:08,320
She seemed fine
to the people around her,

441
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:10,320
but I'm pretty sure
that was a front.

442
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,000
The thing you do
when you've just had a break-up

443
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,160
and you're trying to show your ex
how fine you are,

444
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:15,960
that you're great,
you're having a lovely time

445
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:17,960
and you don't even remember them.

446
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:19,960
'After nine days, on December 10th,

447
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,960
'two staff members
informed the police

448
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:25,480
'that they believed Agatha Christie
was staying at the hotel.

449
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,480
'And the next day,
her disappearance ended.'

450
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,960
There, sitting by the fire,
was her husband Archie...

451
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,960
who had come up with a policeman.

452
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:36,960
I mean,
it must have been extraordinary.

453
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,960
'With the press gathering
at the hotel front entrance,

454
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,960
'they attempted to escape
via another route.

455
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:45,960
'They had to be bright idea
of going out to the side entrance,

456
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:49,960
'but The Daily Mail was onto that,
and they were waiting for her there

457
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,960
'and got this amazing
shot of this blank face.'

458
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:54,480
SHUTTER SNAPS

459
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:56,960
I suspect it felt alarming
and overwhelming, you know,

460
00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:58,960
the fame wasn't earned,
it wasn't from her books,

461
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:00,960
it was from something
she did in her private life

462
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:01,960
that became public.

463
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:04,960
The truth is,
Agatha Christie wrote fiction,

464
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:06,960
she didn't want to be
a character in a fiction.

465
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,960
'Archie told reporters
that Agatha's disappearance

466
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:12,640
'had been caused
by a loss of memory.'

467
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:14,960
I think most people would accept

468
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:18,640
that she was going through
an incredibly stressful time.

469
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:20,960
She obviously had
some breakdown of some sort.

470
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:24,960
Even now, we still don't
really know what happened.

471
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:26,960
I mean,
we know she was in Harrogate,

472
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,320
but we don't really know
why for that long

473
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,960
and why she just went
for radio silence

474
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:32,960
and didn't come out of hiding.

475
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:35,480
I suppose you could say

476
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:37,960
it was, like, just a typical
Agatha Christie thing to do.

477
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,480
'Agatha and Archie divorced
after the disappearance.

478
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:43,960
'And some would say
there was a marked change

479
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,960
'in her depiction of Poirot
in the following years.'

480
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,960
I think an experience like that
does alter you and,

481
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:52,640
if you're altered,
your books are altered.

482
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,960
Poirot becomes, I think, slightly
softer, slightly more mature.

483
00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:57,960
You must look to the future.

484
00:24:57,960 --> 00:24:59,960
SHE SCOFFS
Oh, she'd love that.

485
00:24:59,960 --> 00:25:00,960
I am thinking of you.

486
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,480
You have before you your whole life.

487
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:07,960
We get a glimpse
at Hercule Poirot's heart.

488
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:12,960
You can see that there has been
a possibility of love in his eye.

489
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,960
After the media frenzy
surrounding her disappearance,

490
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,960
Agatha Christie was front-page news
for all the wrong reasons.

491
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:22,960
With heavy scrutiny
from press and public alike,

492
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,480
Britain was starting to feel
like a prison.

493
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,960
But Agatha would discover
a new freedom through foreign travel

494
00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,960
that would liberate her imagination
like never before.

495
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,000
Agatha Christie
had always been curious

496
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:42,960
about the world beyond Britain.

497
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,960
After her divorce from Archie,
she indulged her curiosity

498
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:48,480
by travelling abroad alone,

499
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,320
picking up new stories
for Poirot along the way.

500
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:56,960
But it wasn't until she boarded
a luxury train bound for Istanbul

501
00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,960
that she would discover Poirot's
greatest adventure yet.

502
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:06,000
'In 1928, Agatha took her
first journey on the Orient express.

503
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:10,960
She uses her independent spirit
to go travelling...

504
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:12,320
on her own.

505
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:14,960
This is 100 years ago,
this is unusual.

506
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,960
You have to remember
how rare it was

507
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,960
for the British reading public
to travel outside Britain.

508
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:25,960
But, early on, she made enough
money to afford to travel en luxe,

509
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,960
go on these grand trains
like The Orient Express.

510
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,960
What a woman.
I mean, what a woman!

511
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,960
She was a trailblazer
in so many different ways.

512
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,960
'Agatha would have started
her train journey

513
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:39,960
'at Victoria Station in London,

514
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,960
'which she described as "the gateway
to the world beyond England."

515
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:46,960
'Today, the luxury train provider
Belmond

516
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,960
'runs services that recreate
the comfort and elegance

517
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:51,960
'that she would have enjoyed.'

518
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,000
'Agatha Christie fan and actress
Joanna Page

519
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,000
'has come to discover
why this opulent mode of transport

520
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,960
'had so much appeal.'

521
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:03,960
The first time I started reading
Agatha's novels

522
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,160
was when I was quite young.

523
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,960
I think I leapt from Enid Blyton
to Agatha Christie.

524
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:15,960
Trains are just such a lovely place
to let your imagination just wander.

525
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,960
I mean, you're sitting on there
for such a long time,

526
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:20,960
meeting lots of different people.

527
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:24,960
It's just the perfect place for
stories just to unfold in your mind.

528
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:29,800
She just must have been lapping up
all of these different countries,

529
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:30,960
and all of the different locations,

530
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,480
and just putting it
into each of her books.

531
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:35,960
I just think that's just wonderful.

532
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,960
Good morning, madam,
and welcome on board

533
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:39,960
the Belmond British Pullman.

534
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,960
I can imagine why Agatha Christie
would love train travel like this.

535
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,960
Because it's just so indulgent,
and you just feel so special.

536
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,800
'Agatha Christie became a regular
traveller on The Orient Express

537
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:57,960
'and referred to it
as "a familiar old friend."

538
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,960
'The long meandering journey
from west to east

539
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,960
'would prove to be a gift
for a prolific writer like Agatha.'

540
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,960
There's something incredibly
glamorous about that period.

541
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,960
And the idea of sitting down
for dinner

542
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:15,960
with the most beautiful,
white linen tablecloth

543
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:16,960
and silver service

544
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:21,320
and people coming in long, slinky
gowns and cigarette holders.

545
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:26,960
There is something about that period
that is just captivating.

546
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,960
To have a train travelling
across Europe around the world,

547
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,960
seeing all the different countries
with that level of food and service

548
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,960
and hospitality and luxury,
I always found that quite special.

549
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:40,160
'Agatha's love of luxury train
travel

550
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,960
'would provide her with a backdrop
for Murder On the Orient Express.'

551
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:50,960
'Inspired by her early experience

552
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,000
'of being trapped on
the Orient Express after flooding,

553
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,960
'the story pivots around
12 characters brought together

554
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,960
'after a snow drift
blocks the train's path.'

555
00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:02,960
Murder on the Orient Express has
lots of things going for it.

556
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,800
The train is obviously,
almost an extra character in it.

557
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:08,960
It is the ultimate in luxury.

558
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:10,960
Agatha Christie is at her best

559
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,960
writing what one might think of
as locked room mysteries.

560
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,960
Where there is a small number
of people in a contained space.

561
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:22,960
You do feel airless and trapped,
and unable to get away.

562
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:24,000
That is frightening.

563
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,960
Everyone's in danger and everyone's
looking over their shoulder.

564
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:28,320
Everyone's, you know,

565
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,960
checking everyone and everything
all the time,

566
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:32,960
and it's a genius device.

567
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,960
To put mystique and betrayal
in that confined space,

568
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:41,480
again with these very well-to-do
characters, you know,

569
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:43,960
the last thing
you'd expect is a murder.

570
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,960
There is a murderer among us.

571
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:03,960
It's the deep, dark, psychological
stuff that really floats my boat,

572
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,800
why people do dark and bad things.

573
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:09,960
Everybody's scared. Or are they?

574
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:11,960
Everybody could have done it,
or could they?

575
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,960
Everybody could be a victim,
everybody is a victim.

576
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,000
Who's going to be bumped off next?

577
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,960
And you've got Poirot there
to solve it, or not to solve it.

578
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,960
'It's not only the intriguing plot,
mysterious characters

579
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,000
'and stunning location that has
captured the imagination,

580
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,960
'it is also Agatha's
devilishly clever finale.'

581
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:36,960
The end of Murder On The Orient
Express leaves Poirot

582
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,960
with a moral dilemma.
What is he to do?

583
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,800
Because justice must be done.

584
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:48,000
Poirot is in real trouble,
and it's good to see him squirm.

585
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:49,960
Ladies and gentlemen...

586
00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:52,960
..I have understood, in this case,

587
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:57,960
the scales of justice
cannot always be evenly weighed.

588
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,960
And I must learn, for once...

589
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:04,960
..To live with the imbalance.

590
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:09,320
I think it genuinely does
have the most ingenious

591
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:13,160
solution to a mystery in the whole
of detective fiction.

592
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,960
I've never come across
a cleverer solution.

593
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,960
'Today, anyone travelling
on the Orient Express

594
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:23,960
'is transported back
to the romance and intrigue

595
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:25,960
'of Agatha's iconic story.

596
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,960
'It seems author and train
will be forever linked.'

597
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:32,960
If I said to anybody, 'What's the
most romantic train in the world?'

598
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:35,960
They would say,
'The Orient Express.'

599
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:37,160
Everybody knows the Orient Express.

600
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:39,960
Pleasingly, I haven't been
on a train journey

601
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:42,960
where a murder has occurred.
That's a nice thing.

602
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:44,960
But I have, been, indeed,
on this train.

603
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:49,960
There is a sense of excitement,
event about it.

604
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,960
By the 1930s, Agatha Christie
was on her way

605
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,960
to being a national treasure.

606
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:57,960
Her ingenious plots
had secured her place

607
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,960
as the most popular crime writer
in the country.

608
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:04,320
But she was forever curious
about worlds beyond our shores.

609
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:05,960
When the Middle East beckoned,

610
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,000
she would discover one of her
most celebrated mysteries ever.

611
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,960
'Agatha Christie had a lifelong
passion for archaeology.

612
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,960
'Historian Bettany Hughes, has come
to the British Museum to explore

613
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,000
'the role the past played
in her writing.'

614
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,320
I think archaeology really
appeals to Agatha for two reasons.

615
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,160
First, because she is
actually very precise,

616
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,960
and she likes to arrange
evidence in a particular way.

617
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:33,960
But she is also a storyteller and
someone who loves solving mysteries,

618
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:38,800
so the fact that archaeology is
a science where you have to find

619
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:40,960
the answers by jigsaw puzzling
together the clues,

620
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:42,960
I'm sure would have appealed to her.

621
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:44,960
I think she was really
a frustrated archaeologist

622
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:46,960
through most of her life.

623
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:49,960
'In 1930, aged nearly 40,

624
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:53,000
'Agatha travelled to Iraq
to attend an excavation.'

625
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:58,960
How brilliant that someone who liked
to dig around in people's lives

626
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:03,000
and their behaviours went to dig
around in people's past lives

627
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:04,960
and their past behaviours.

628
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:09,640
'It's here that she met
archaeologist, Max Mallowan.

629
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,160
'Within six months of meeting,
they were married.'

630
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,960
So, these are ivories that were
found by Max Mallowan in Iraq.

631
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:24,640
We know that she adored
helping Max find and restore them.

632
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,960
So, she worked
kind of as an archaeologist by day,

633
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,960
and then by night,
she would sit and write her books.

634
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:35,960
'Before long, The desert
lands of the Middle East

635
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:37,960
'became the settings
for Agatha's stories.

636
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:39,960
'Murder In Mesopotamia

637
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:43,640
'brought Poirot to an archaeological
dig in Iraq.'

638
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:52,960
You'd have been a good
archaeologist, Mr Poirot.

639
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:55,960
You have the gift...

640
00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,320
..Of recreating the past.

641
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:03,000
He actually describes his work
as being like archaeology.

642
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,640
Burrowing around, trying to find
the truth and trying to find clues

643
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:08,960
and piece them together.

644
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,960
Agatha herself talks about putting
aside debris

645
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:13,960
to find the shining truth.

646
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,960
That is what both
authors and archaeologists do.

647
00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:21,960
Facts, Hastings. Facts.

648
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:25,960
Those are the cobbles that make
up the road along which we travel.

649
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:31,960
'It wasn't all work for Agatha
and Max when they travelled.

650
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:35,160
'During a holiday to Egypt,
they boarded a steamboat

651
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:36,960
'and travelled down the Nile.'

652
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:40,960
I have done a trip down the Nile
on a boat.

653
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,640
I have done one of those trips.

654
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,960
And it is one of the
most interesting,

655
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,960
romantic things you can do.

656
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:51,960
I've been on that boat
down the Nile.

657
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:56,160
I've done it,
and it's exhilarating. You know?

658
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:58,960
You're down the Nile,
you pass the Valley Of The Kings,

659
00:34:58,960 --> 00:34:59,960
you get a shiver over you.

660
00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:03,960
'Agatha's slow boat through Egypt
became the inspiration

661
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:06,000
'for one of her most enduring
mysteries.

662
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,960
Death on the Nile.'

663
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,960
There's something about this place.
Don't you think?

664
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,960
Something unsettling
one can't quite resist. Oui.

665
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:22,960
For Agatha Christie and her husband,
Max, to go down the Nile...

666
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,960
..Must have been absolutely
fascinating.

667
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:26,960
She will have looked
at those characters,

668
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,960
like on The Orient Express,
who were on that boat and thought,

669
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:33,960
'Oh, my goodness.
There's a murder mystery here.'

670
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,960
You refuse to help, Monsieur Poirot,
and look what happens.

671
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:38,960
But this is not of my making,
Madame.

672
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:40,960
But how could she have
known that we would be on the boat?

673
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:42,960
But if you are suggesting...

674
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:45,320
I'm suggesting nothing, Monsieur,
but I will tell you this.

675
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,960
Everybody hates me.
OK? I'm surrounded by enemies.

676
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,000
The reason Agatha Christie
is such a genius

677
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,960
is she gets
the three essentials right.

678
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:00,960
Plot, character, location.

679
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,320
She's clear about all of them.
And the locations are wonderful.

680
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,960
'Death On The Nile and
Murder On The Orient Express

681
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,160
'secured Agatha Christie's
reputation as a writer

682
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:14,960
'who could take Poirot and fans

683
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:17,960
'on captivating journeys
into unknown lands.'

684
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:21,960
'But which was her
favourite Poirot story?'

685
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:25,960
A lady wouldn't say easily.
Oh, I should think...

686
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:28,960
..I think it's very good for fans...

687
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,960
Perhaps
the Murder On The Orient Express.

688
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:33,960
'As Agatha's success
reached new heights,

689
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:38,320
'she turned more and more to the
familiar settings of Devon and home,

690
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:40,160
'where both she and Poirot
would uncover

691
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,960
'some of the most shocking murders
of their careers.'

692
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:45,960
QUIETLY: Is that what you have
feared has happened, Madame?

693
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:47,960
Le mort?

694
00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:53,960
Well, you don't mean...
You don't mean... Oh, Marlene.

695
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,960
Agatha Christie found inspiration
wherever she went,

696
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:14,960
be it on a train journey through
Europe or a holiday on the Nile.

697
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:16,000
But nothing provided more material

698
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:20,960
for her extraordinary imagination
than the familiar places of home.

699
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,960
It was here, in Britain,
that she was able to bring Poirot

700
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:24,960
directly into her life.

701
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,960
'In 1938,
Agatha Christie bought Greenway.

702
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,480
'A gorgeous house on the banks
of the River Dart In Devon.'

703
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,960
She had the money to look
for a house, and famously,

704
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:43,960
she came down here one day
and virtually bought it on sight.

705
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:44,960
It is the most amazing place.

706
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,960
It is also an incredibly private
place.

707
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,960
And it was her
happy place for a very long time.

708
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:54,960
A great, Georgian house,
about 1780 or 90.

709
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:59,960
Woods sweeping down to
the Dart below. The perfect house.

710
00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:02,960
My wonderful
and most beautiful possession.

711
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,320
'Agatha's great-grandson,
James Pritchard,

712
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:09,960
'remembers Agatha and husband Max
spending cherished time with family

713
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:11,960
and close friends at Greenway.'

714
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,960
They used to come down here
during the holidays in the summer,

715
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:16,960
and they would entertain
quite widely.

716
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:19,960
There's a tennis court,
a putting green on the top,

717
00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,960
and probably boating on the river,
and a lot of eating and drinking.

718
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:24,960
It was a big part of my childhood.

719
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,960
We used to come down here
for weeks at a time in the summer.

720
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:30,960
I mean, in some ways,
we kind of never left,

721
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:31,960
because there was so much to do.

722
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:35,960
'Agatha took Poirot along with her
to Greenway,

723
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:38,960
'setting some of his
most memorable adventures

724
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:40,960
'in the grounds of her idyllic home.

725
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:43,960
'And the book which was most
clearly influenced by it

726
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:44,960
'was Dead Man's Folly.'

727
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,960
I have been admiring the house.
I thank you.

728
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:51,960
It was built by my husband's
great-grandfather.

729
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:55,960
'When the ITV Poirot series
came to make the screen version,

730
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:57,960
the obvious place to film it
was here.'

731
00:38:57,960 --> 00:38:59,960
To have Agatha Christie's home,
Greenway,

732
00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:04,960
featuring in an episode of Poirot
was the ultimate coming together

733
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,800
of the creator and the creation.

734
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:11,960
'Not only did Agatha bring
Poirot into her real life,

735
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:14,960
'but she also found a way of putting
herself directly into his stories

736
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,960
'when she created the character
of crime writer, Ariadne Oliver.'

737
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:23,960
ARIADNE: 'Come at once. Nasse
House, Devon. Need help. Urgent.

738
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:25,960
'Ariadne Oliver.'

739
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,320
As far as I can tell...

740
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:32,960
..She sort of wrote Ariadne
as a sendup of herself.

741
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:34,960
This is also a wonderful antithesis
to Poirot,

742
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,960
that he's so anal and she's not.

743
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:38,960
Hello, Poirot.

744
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:42,960
What is wrong, Madame?
Nothing's wrong.

745
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:44,960
I just wanted to see
if someone would come.

746
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:46,960
Ariadne is very messy.

747
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:48,960
She's always sitting there,
crunching apples

748
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:50,320
and having feminine intuition.

749
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:53,960
She's a very funny character.

750
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,960
That toing and froing between them
was just such fun.

751
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:01,000
She was so rude to him,
which was great.

752
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:02,960
POIROT WINCES

753
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:06,640
What's the matter?
SIGHS

754
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:09,160
It is my feet.
They cause me the pain.

755
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:12,960
It's those silly
patent leather shoes of yours.

756
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:14,960
Ludicrous for the country.

757
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:17,960
It's the yin and the yang together,
and that's why they get on.

758
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:20,800
That's why they tolerate each other.

759
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,960
Now, why don't you get yourself
a nice pair of those buckskin ones

760
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:24,960
with the rubber soles?

761
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:29,160
Madame, cher Madame, I do not know
that I agree with you.

762
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:33,960
Her sparring with Poirot always
makes me think that actually,

763
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:35,960
it's Agatha Christie
talking to her main character

764
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:37,960
and it's a dialogue
between the two of them.

765
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,960
'At the outbreak
of World War Two,

766
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:43,960
Agatha was forced to give up
Greenway to the US Admiralty.

767
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:47,960
While husband, Max,
joined the war effort in Africa,

768
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:50,800
Agatha moved out of the countryside
and into London,

769
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:51,960
where new fashions and new styles

770
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,320
had transformed
the face of the capital.'

771
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:59,800
'She lived in this cutting-edge
building in the north of the city,

772
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:01,960
'known as the Isokon.'

773
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:04,000
'Cultural historian,
Gus Caseley-Hayford,

774
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,960
'has come to take a look around.'

775
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:11,960
Agatha grows up
in gorgeous country houses.

776
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:16,960
Traditional sort of architecture.
But this? This was a departure.

777
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:19,960
This was her
stepping into another world.

778
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:22,960
'One of the flats in the Isokon
has been restored

779
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,960
'to the style and layout
that Agatha would have known.'

780
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:29,960
Just look at this. Isn't it...

781
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:30,960
..Exquisite?

782
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:35,960
And for a writer and someone
like Agatha, somewhere like this,

783
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:36,960
quiet...

784
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,960
..Contemplative, beautiful,

785
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:43,960
it would be the perfect place
to retreat in the centre of London.

786
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:48,800
'Britain in the 1930s
had undergone a style revolution,

787
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:50,960
'and Art Deco was all the rage.'

788
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:55,960
It's a gorgeous period
of architecture and design.

789
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:59,320
It's cool, it's sleek.

790
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:01,960
Beautiful buildings
with elegant silhouettes.

791
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:06,960
It's a style that absolutely,
we would associate with luxury.

792
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:08,960
With sophistication.

793
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:14,960
'In Agatha's stories, Poirot's
London flat, Whitehaven Mansions,

794
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:16,960
'perfectly embodies
the Art Deco style.'

795
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:21,960
There's a quality,
there's a style about Art Deco,

796
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,960
that runs through all
of Agatha Christie's adaptations.

797
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:29,960
And that's one of the things
I really do love about that look,

798
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:31,160
that style of that design.

799
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:33,800
It catches that era,
the 20s and 30s.

800
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:35,960
I just think
it's absolutely stunning.

801
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,960
'Florin Court, an iconic 1930s
building in central London,

802
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,000
'doubled up as Whitehaven Mansions

803
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,000
'when the stories
were brought to television.'

804
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:50,320
Interestingly, we went to
quite a lot of Art Deco houses,

805
00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:52,960
usually in and around London...

806
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:57,960
..Where the owners who were
passionate about Art Deco

807
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:01,960
had them perfectly preserved
in the period.

808
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:02,960
It was a joy to be in those places.

809
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:07,960
What Agatha Christie allowed
to flourish in her pieces was style.

810
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:12,000
We were constantly reminded
of the time and the era

811
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:17,960
that she was writing about,
because of the visuals, what we saw.

812
00:43:17,960 --> 00:43:19,960
Art Deco was everywhere.

813
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:23,960
Because of television design and the
beauty of some of those costumes

814
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:28,960
and set designs, I think he'll
always inhabit that period for us.

815
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:35,960
I think that speaks to Poirot
and his character.

816
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:40,160
We naturally feel like he would have
inhabited

817
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:42,960
a kind of Art Deco environment.

818
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:48,960
And those clean lines, these
gorgeous shapes. That clarity.

819
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:54,960
That represented who Hercule Poirot
was and his way of thinking.

820
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,960
There is, with Poirot,
precision that makes him

821
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,960
look almost like an Art Deco
work of art.

822
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:03,000
What do you make of that?

823
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:08,960
I do not know what to make of it,
Madame.

824
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:09,960
Not symmetrical enough for you?

825
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,960
'This new style was not only
confined to the capital.

826
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:17,960
'In Devon, Agatha's home county,

827
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,960
'Burgh Island Hotel is
a beacon of this new aesthetic.'

828
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:27,640
It is very, very beautiful island,
and a beautiful Art Deco hotel,

829
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:29,960
all in its original form.

830
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:33,960
It's an iconic Devon landmark.
Famously, it's cut off by the tide.

831
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:34,960
It's actually completely isolated.

832
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:37,960
And that, I think, just has
a certain mystique about it.

833
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:42,160
'Agatha Christie was a regular
visitor to Burgh Island

834
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:46,320
'in the 1930s. Current owner,
Giles Fuchs,

835
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:47,960
'has restored
the glamour and opulence

836
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:49,960
'that she would
have been familiar with.'

837
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:52,960
Burgh Island Hotel is
famous for being Art Deco,

838
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:54,960
and has now one of the largest
collections

839
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:56,960
of Art Deco furniture
in the country.

840
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,960
Agatha Christie would have
recognised this room.

841
00:44:59,960 --> 00:45:02,960
She would have walked in and seen
the magnificent Peacock Dome,

842
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:04,960
which is the centrepiece
of the Palm Court.

843
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:09,960
'For Agatha, the island was more
than just a luxurious indulgence.

844
00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:11,960
'It was also a writing retreat.'

845
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:13,960
This is the beach house,

846
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:16,960
where Agatha Christie wrote
some of her novels.

847
00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:21,960
The island changes, as we know, from
the summer and the Riviera feel,

848
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:24,960
to the winter and the ominous,
sinister feel that it has.

849
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:27,960
I imagine her imagination
would run wild

850
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,960
with the views
that she was looking at.

851
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:34,960
I like to imagine her sitting,
looking out of the window

852
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:40,160
and just letting it all come to her.
As the tide came in,

853
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:41,960
the story came in.

854
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:43,960
I can see her thinking...

855
00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:45,960
..'Page one.'

856
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:50,960
'It was here that Agatha
wrote Evil Under The Sun.

857
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:54,960
'A murder mystery set on an island,
cut off from the mainland.

858
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:57,960
'And when it came to adapting
the book for the ITV series,

859
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:00,960
'there was no better location.

860
00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:04,960
Burgh Island is one of the most
extraordinary, romantic,

861
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:07,960
amazing places to set
a detective story.

862
00:46:10,960 --> 00:46:12,960
This is the hotel.
It is on an island.

863
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:15,960
Oh, don't worry, Poirot,
you won't have to go on a boat.

864
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:17,960
There's that to carry
you over the causeway.

865
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:20,960
All aboard, please,
we leave in a minute.

866
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,960
You have these different people
coming from different places

867
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:25,960
with different motivations
and different secrets,

868
00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:26,960
and they all come together.

869
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:28,800
Hercule Poirot.

870
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:32,480
This is my associate,
Captain Hastings. How do you do?

871
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:33,960
Hercule Poirot,
the famous detective.

872
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,960
Ah, that'll certainly
liven things up.

873
00:46:37,960 --> 00:46:41,960
When I first read the book,
I knew where Poirot was sitting,

874
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,800
looking at the swimmers in the pool,
in the mermaid pool.

875
00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:49,960
And where the coves were, of course,
where the murder took place.

876
00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:52,640
She's very good at maximising
all the features

877
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,960
of whatever setting she has chosen.

878
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:56,960
It's the fact that there are caves

879
00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,960
where people can hide
near the beach.

880
00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:04,960
She just uses all the assets of
the island and beach-side setting.

881
00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:08,960
And you've got built in, this idea
that at certain times of the day,

882
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:13,960
a lock is closed and the island
becomes almost a prison.

883
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:15,960
You can't get off it,
because the tide has come up.

884
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:18,960
That is wonderful
for a murder mystery story.

885
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:22,960
But surely, no one could think
of murder in such a beautiful place?

886
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:24,960
No, no, no, Hastings.

887
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:29,960
It is romantic, yes?

888
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:34,960
It is peaceful.

889
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,960
The sun shines, the sea,
it is blue.

890
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:42,960
But you forget, mon ami, there
is evil everywhere under the sun.

891
00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:46,000
Throughout her career,
Agatha Christie had taken the people

892
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:49,960
and places of her life
and recreated them on the page.

893
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:53,960
But as the 1950s got underway,
new forms of storytelling arose,

894
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:57,960
and Agatha would soon see Poirot
go from script to screen.

895
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,960
Agatha Christie was a voracious
reader with a deep love

896
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:09,800
for the written word.

897
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:12,960
When her Poirot stories
were first taken from a page

898
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:16,960
and adapted into movies,
she wasn't too impressed.

899
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:18,960
But her fans thought differently.

900
00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:22,960
Because Poirot, with his dashing
moustache and crisp suits,

901
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:24,960
worked like a dream
on the silver screen.

902
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:32,960
'Over the years, a number
of leading actors have interpreted

903
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:35,960
'the iconic detective
for the stage and screen.'

904
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:40,960
It's always nice to see Agatha come
to life in a different way,

905
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:43,960
in a different director, in a
different script, different actors.

906
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:46,960
For me, Poirot is iconic. He's
one of the most iconic detectives.

907
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:49,960
I think when you hear
the name and you see his look,

908
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:52,960
it's established all over the world.
We recognise him for that.

909
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:57,960
'Screen depictions of the Belgian
detective go back nearly a century.

910
00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:01,800
'Stephen Fry is going to take a look
through the archives

911
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:03,960
with film historian, Mark Aldridge.'

912
00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:07,960
I'm looking forward to lots
of different cuts of moustache.

913
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:09,960
'And some of them took surprising
liberties

914
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:11,960
'with Agatha's iconic character,

915
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:15,960
'like this 1934 version
of Lord Edgware Dies.

916
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:17,960
Regarding that letter
Lady Edgware never received,

917
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:19,960
there are four solutions
to their problem.

918
00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:23,960
The first, that it was lost in
the post.

919
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:28,480
The second,
that Lady Edgware was lying

920
00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:30,960
when she said she never received it.

921
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:31,960
CHUCKLING

922
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:35,960
Wow. Well, a naked, a bald
upper lip, which is a huge shock.

923
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:37,960
Clearly, you can imagine
Agatha Christie,

924
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:40,960
who wasn't always very pleased
with adaptations of her work,

925
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:43,800
would have found that
rather surprising.

926
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:48,800
'In 1974 came
the first truly great

927
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:50,960
cinematic adaptation
of a Poirot story,

928
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,960
with Albert Finney
playing the lead role

929
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:55,960
in Murder On The Orient Express.'

930
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:57,960
Oh, I love this scene.

931
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,960
Observe, memorise your mind
with what it says.

932
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:11,960
A-I-S-Y A-R-M-S.
What does that mean?

933
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:13,000
WHISPERS: Daisy Armstrong!

934
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:18,960
It means... We know the true
identity of Mr Ratchett.

935
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:22,960
It's a masterpiece.
It's a very great film.

936
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:24,960
It has a huge cast of massive stars,

937
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:29,960
and Albert Finney is a magnificent
Poirot. His fury, his passion!

938
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:32,000
It's just wonderful to behold.

939
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:34,160
'Four years later,

940
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:37,960
Poirot would be played by
Peter Ustinov in Death On The Nile.'

941
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:39,960
Do forgive me for butting in,

942
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:43,960
but I've had a bet with my daughter
here that you're Hercules Porridge,

943
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:45,960
the famous French sleuth.
Not quite.

944
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:48,960
I'm Hercule Poirot,
the famous Belgian sleuth.

945
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:50,960
I told you, Rosalie.

946
00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:55,960
There's only one Monsieur Poirot
in the world. He's unmistakable.

947
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,960
Everybody has got their specific
Poirot that they love.

948
00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:04,000
But Peter Ustinov, to me,
he will always be my one,

949
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,960
cos he sort of like
a grandfather figure.

950
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:10,960
He's just, like,
this lovely, fat man.

951
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,960
He's kind,
and he's wise and he's knowing.

952
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:17,800
I'm very sorry to see you here,
Madamoiselle.

953
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:19,960
Forgive me for saying,

954
00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:23,960
but you are embarking on a hazardous
journey in troubled waters.

955
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:27,480
To face who knows what
currents of misfortune.

956
00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:29,960
So, for some people
involved in this film,

957
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:31,960
when they saw Peter Ustinov,

958
00:51:31,960 --> 00:51:35,000
the reaction was that didn't
seem to be Poirot,

959
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:37,960
to which Ustinov replied,
'Well, it is now.'

960
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:40,960
LAUGHS
I don't think that, er...

961
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:44,960
..Agatha Christie really had
a very detailed view of Poirot,

962
00:51:44,960 --> 00:51:47,960
except that he was bald, which
of course, I am, too, and small,

963
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:49,960
which goes without saying.

964
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:53,960
People always talk about whether
X version of Poirot is right,

965
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:56,960
or Y is right, and my answer
to that is that there isn't a right,

966
00:51:56,960 --> 00:51:58,960
because she never drew him.

967
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:03,960
'Peter Ustinov would prove a popular
Poirot with cinema audiences,

968
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:08,320
'taking up the role again
for Evil Under The Sun in 1982.'

969
00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:13,960
'Nearly 40 years later, Sir Kenneth
Branagh has played Poirot

970
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:17,960
'on remakes of Murder On The Orient
Express and Death On The Nile.'

971
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:21,000
I can only see the world
as it should be.

972
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:22,960
And when it is not,

973
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:27,640
the imperfection stands out like
the nose in the middle of a face.

974
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:30,800
'Agatha's Great-grandson,
James Prichard,

975
00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:32,960
was involved in bringing
this latest adaptation to life.'

976
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:36,960
I remember when I first talked
to Ken Branagh about playing Poirot,

977
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:38,160
and he very firmly said,

978
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:40,960
'I think there are certainly
two things that Poirot has.

979
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:43,320
He has the moustache
and he has the Belgian accent.'

980
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:45,960
Poirot hides behind this moustache.

981
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:47,320
He provokes with this moustache,

982
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:49,960
he is dismissed
because of this moustache.

983
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:52,960
And he, as a result of being
dismissed in this way,

984
00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:54,960
puts people off their guard

985
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:56,960
and he has a chance
to be a better detective.

986
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:00,960
When we started
talking about putting together

987
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:02,960
the cast for
Murder On The Orient Express, again,

988
00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:05,960
you are kind of like
the kid in the sweetie shop,

989
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:08,960
with all these amazing actors
coming in.

990
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,000
You had your Judi Denches,
you obviously had Ken,

991
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:13,960
and then you had Daisy Ridley.

992
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:17,960
'And the most recent
Agatha Christie adaptation

993
00:53:17,960 --> 00:53:20,960
is just as thrilling as those
that have gone before it.'

994
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:25,960
I have investigated many crimes.
But this...

995
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:31,480
..Has altered the shape of my soul.

996
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:38,960
'Outside of the cinema,
Poirot's also a familiar face on TV.

997
00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:41,960
'But few people know
that the Belgian detective

998
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:44,960
'made his TV debut
in an American one-off pilot,

999
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:48,960
seen here for the first
time in almost 60 years.'

1000
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:51,960
Today, however, Mrs Davenheim called
in Hercule Poirot,

1001
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:54,960
the internationally famous
private investigator.

1002
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:57,960
'Poirot didn't make it
to a full series in America.

1003
00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:00,800
'But in Britain, he certainly did,

1004
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,960
'when David Suchet became the only
actor to portray Poirot

1005
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:06,960
'in every story written
by Agatha Christie

1006
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:08,960
'in the long-running TV series.

1007
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:11,960
PHONE RINGS

1008
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:14,960
Hercule Poirot.

1009
00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:18,960
Hercule Poirot is, for me, much more
than the character

1010
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:25,960
on the written page. Hercule Poirot,
for me, almost is a real person.

1011
00:54:25,960 --> 00:54:28,960
The first time I saw him on the set,

1012
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:31,960
I really was quite surprised
at the transformation.

1013
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:34,960
Because, as is well known,
David plays the character,

1014
00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:37,960
or maintains the character,
even when the camera isn't turning.

1015
00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:40,640
AS POIROT: Make sure this does not
droop a little bit.

1016
00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:42,960
Yes.
Yes, that is better.

1017
00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:48,960
My Poirot is David Suchet, because
he was so beautiful and elegant,

1018
00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:49,960
and fey, and just wonderful.

1019
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:52,960
And I got to do a story
of Agatha Christie's with him,

1020
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:54,960
which was glorious.

1021
00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:56,960
Also, your skill. It gave you away.

1022
00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:00,960
Such artistry, lavished
upon an object of such hate?

1023
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:02,960
No, I did hate her.

1024
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:04,960
My God, I let off a lot of steam
stabbing that thing,

1025
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:07,160
I can tell you, thinking of her.

1026
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:10,960
When I was adapting the series,
his pomposity, his self value,

1027
00:55:10,960 --> 00:55:16,960
his opinion of himself was always
done with tongue in cheek.

1028
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:18,960
And again, David Suchet did it
so brilliantly.

1029
00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:20,960
That sense of, 'I am the best
detective in the world.'

1030
00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:22,960
The murder that took place here

1031
00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:25,960
was the work of the mind
that was brilliant.

1032
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:28,960
But there was one thing that the
killer did not expect...

1033
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:32,960
..The mind of Hercule Poirot.

1034
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:37,960
After it started going out,
it gained a very large audience.

1035
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:39,160
We were well aware of that.

1036
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:41,960
What we weren't aware of was
the longevity of it.

1037
00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:44,960
The fact that it's playing
all over the world,

1038
00:55:44,960 --> 00:55:45,960
as we speak.

1039
00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:49,960
'As new forms of media have arisen,

1040
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:52,960
'Poirot has been made accessible
to each new generation.

1041
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:56,160
'Star of graphic novels,
a computer game...

1042
00:55:56,160 --> 00:55:58,960
This case is far from being solved.

1043
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:01,960
'..And even a Japanese animation.

1044
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:05,800
'With so many Poirots across
the decades, across the globe,

1045
00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:09,320
the question remains,
what makes Poirot, Poirot?

1046
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:12,960
The physicality.
So, everything is very held in.

1047
00:56:12,960 --> 00:56:16,960
The way he walks is very small,
very little steps.

1048
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:20,960
I think Poirot, for me, is not the
moustache. I think it's his size.

1049
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:22,960
Just the weight and the space that
he takes up.

1050
00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:27,960
It's the monocle and it's the hair,
it's the rotundness.

1051
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:30,960
As soon as you see an image
of Poirot, you know who that is.

1052
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:33,960
That's a testament to
Agatha Christie's characterisation.

1053
00:56:33,960 --> 00:56:38,960
The name, the look, the vice.
He's all there.

1054
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:44,160
Big Poirots, small Poirots,
thin Poirots, fat Poirots.

1055
00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:46,960
We've seen them all.
But one thing is certain.

1056
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:50,960
He needs a Belgian accent,
and a finely groomed moustache.

1057
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:53,960
AS POIROT: Not bad.

1058
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:55,960
And I'm working on the Belgian
accent.

1059
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:07,960
By the 1950s, Agatha Christie had
achieved more success

1060
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:10,960
than she could ever have dreamt of.

1061
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:12,160
But as she entered
her twilight years,

1062
00:57:12,160 --> 00:57:16,960
it was the simple pleasures of home
she returned to again and again.

1063
00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:20,960
Family, friends and food.
A lot of food!

1064
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:27,960
'In her Devon home of Greenway, on
the banks of the River Dart,

1065
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:30,960
Agatha would regularly host long,
indulgent meals.

1066
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:35,960
'It is now owned by the National
Trust, and for James Pritchard,

1067
00:57:35,960 --> 00:57:41,960
'returning to the old family home
evokes fond childhood memories.'

1068
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:46,960
Over there, there is this snake
that props open the door,

1069
00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:48,960
and I remember that
vividly as a child.

1070
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:51,000
I seem to remember being here,

1071
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:54,960
and we definitely had
five or six courses in here.

1072
00:57:54,960 --> 00:57:58,960
To be honest with you, it feels like
I should be sitting down to lunch!

1073
00:57:58,960 --> 00:57:59,960
LAUGHS

1074
00:57:59,960 --> 00:58:02,320
'James' wish is about to be granted.

1075
00:58:02,320 --> 00:58:05,320
'Agatha Christie fan and Michelin
starred chef Marcus Wareing

1076
00:58:05,320 --> 00:58:08,000
'wants to learn more
about the author's love of food,

1077
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:10,960
'so he's invited James
and actress, Amanda Abbington,

1078
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:12,960
'to his restaurant
in Knightsbridge.'

1079
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:15,960
I find the food element
quite fascinating.

1080
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:18,960
It seemed like it does play
a massive part in her life.

1081
00:58:18,960 --> 00:58:21,960
What sort of food did Agatha like?
What was her favourite?

1082
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:23,960
There was quite a lot of rich food,

1083
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:26,960
and there was certainly quite a lot
of cream involved, Both on scones.

1084
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:29,960
But she also famously drank cream...
LAUGHS

1085
00:58:29,960 --> 00:58:31,960
..And she had this enormous mug.

1086
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:34,960
And I'm telling you,
it's nearly a litre.

1087
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:36,960
She used to drink cream from it.
What?! Yeah.

1088
00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:40,960
It's got in gold letters
around the side, 'Don't be greedy.'

1089
00:58:40,960 --> 00:58:43,000
LAUGHTER
It's pretty good.

1090
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:45,480
That's brilliant.

1091
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:47,160
'One Of the biggest events
at Greenway

1092
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:49,960
'was Agatha's 80th birthday party.

1093
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:51,960
'And Marcus wants to recreate
the main course.'

1094
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:53,960
Well, there is a dish here
that I'm intrigued by,

1095
00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:55,960
and that is the lobster a la creme.

1096
00:58:55,960 --> 00:58:57,960
This is a classic French dish.

1097
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:00,960
But it is incredibly rich
and luxurious.

1098
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:02,960
An Agatha had the cream, clearly.

1099
00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:07,480
'Marcus has devised his own
version of Agatha's birthday dish

1100
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:09,960
with an ocean of cream
for the lobster.'

1101
00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:13,320
Dig in. What would Poirot
think of a dish like this?

1102
00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:16,960
I wonder. He'd quite like
the symmetry of the split lobster.

1103
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:18,960
I think that
would have been all right.

1104
00:59:18,960 --> 00:59:20,960
I think he might have found it
a bit messy.

1105
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:22,960
It reminded me, he always
put the napkin...

1106
00:59:22,960 --> 00:59:24,800
LAUGHS

1107
00:59:24,800 --> 00:59:25,960
..It was always up there, wasn't it?

1108
00:59:25,960 --> 00:59:27,960
Sort of spread out
as far as he could get it.

1109
00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:30,960
So any splashes,
they weren't gonna land on him.

1110
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:33,960
If Hercule Poirot is gonna
be at dinner, don't go!

1111
00:59:33,960 --> 00:59:35,960
Do not go there.

1112
00:59:35,960 --> 00:59:40,960
Chances are, he'd be so irritating
to sit next to anyway, wouldn't he?

1113
00:59:40,960 --> 00:59:42,960
Dabbing his mouth,
checking the size of his eggs.

1114
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:44,960
Seeing if the carrots
are the same length.

1115
00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:48,160
'Food in Agatha Christie's
stories could be deadly

1116
00:59:48,160 --> 00:59:50,960
'as well as delicious.'

1117
00:59:50,960 --> 00:59:52,000
Ooh!

1118
00:59:54,960 --> 00:59:55,960
Ow.

1119
00:59:55,960 --> 00:59:58,960
Madame, you will forgive me,
but I do not think that tonight,

1120
00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:01,640
I will require the dinner.

1121
01:00:01,640 --> 01:00:05,160
It would be quite scary to actually
sit down and eat a meal

1122
01:00:05,160 --> 01:00:06,960
with any of Agatha Christie's
characters,

1123
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:08,960
whether you're the murderer or not.

1124
01:00:08,960 --> 01:00:11,320
'Marcus Wareing wants to explore
this darker side

1125
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:12,960
to Agatha's culinary world.'

1126
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:16,960
So, in this particular book,
A Murder Is Announced,

1127
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:18,960
there is a description
of a chocolate cake

1128
01:00:18,960 --> 01:00:20,960
called delicious death cake.

1129
01:00:20,960 --> 01:00:25,960
It's basically described as, 'Rich,
rich, and probably even more rich.'

1130
01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:27,960
'And it probably will kill you.'

1131
01:00:27,960 --> 01:00:29,960
'Marcus has created his own
interpretation

1132
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:31,800
'of Agatha's death cake,

1133
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:33,960
'with an appropriately
fatal quantity of chocolate.'

1134
01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:37,000
That's gorgeous.
Loosen your belts!

1135
01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:39,960
LAUGHTER
It's gonna get messy...

1136
01:00:39,960 --> 01:00:41,960
LAUGHTER
..From here on in.

1137
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:50,960
Oh, that's incredible!
That is so good!

1138
01:00:51,960 --> 01:00:55,960
That is like the most chocolate
I have ever had, all at once,

1139
01:00:55,960 --> 01:00:56,960
at the same time!

1140
01:00:56,960 --> 01:01:00,960
Agatha Christie, the Queen of crime
and the Queen of puddings.

1141
01:01:02,960 --> 01:01:06,960
'Food, for Agatha Christie, was
a way connecting with family.'

1142
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:09,480
ALL: Cheers.
To Agatha.

1143
01:01:09,480 --> 01:01:12,960
'In the final years
of Agatha Christie's life,

1144
01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:15,960
'much of her time spent
at her Devon home, Greenway,

1145
01:01:15,960 --> 01:01:19,000
'with her husband,
her daughter and grandson.

1146
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:23,960
'She continued to produce Poirot
stories in her final decade.

1147
01:01:23,960 --> 01:01:28,960
'But in 1975, she said goodbye to
him when his swansong, Curtain,

1148
01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:30,960
'was published.

1149
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:33,960
'It would go on to be the
final episode of the ITV series,

1150
01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:35,960
'starring David Suchet.'

1151
01:01:39,960 --> 01:01:41,640
Hastings?

1152
01:01:41,640 --> 01:01:44,960
It was very moving
to be doing the last one after,

1153
01:01:44,960 --> 01:01:46,960
I think it was 25 years.

1154
01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:48,960
POIROT BREATHES HEAVILY

1155
01:01:48,960 --> 01:01:51,960
Poirot? You're looking pretty awful.

1156
01:01:51,960 --> 01:01:55,960
Don't you think
I should call a doctor?

1157
01:01:55,960 --> 01:01:56,960
What good would that do?

1158
01:01:57,960 --> 01:01:59,960
What will be, will be.

1159
01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:03,960
There was a very marked change
in atmosphere on the set

1160
01:02:03,960 --> 01:02:05,960
during that one,
particularly towards the end,

1161
01:02:05,960 --> 01:02:07,960
where he was doing the scenes
where he's bedridden.

1162
01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:11,960
It's devastating for Hastings,
but it's devastating for us,

1163
01:02:11,960 --> 01:02:13,960
because we were all saying goodbye

1164
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:16,960
to somebody that we've
known and loved.

1165
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:19,960
My heart bleeds for you.

1166
01:02:20,960 --> 01:02:24,000
My poor, lonely Hastings.

1167
01:02:26,960 --> 01:02:28,960
Poirot.
Go now, cher ami.

1168
01:02:29,960 --> 01:02:31,960
Let me rest.

1169
01:02:35,960 --> 01:02:38,320
BREATHES HEAVILY

1170
01:02:41,480 --> 01:02:43,800
'In an extraordinary
real-life epilogue,

1171
01:02:43,800 --> 01:02:46,960
'Poirot received an obituary
in the New York Times.

1172
01:02:46,960 --> 01:02:48,960
'He is the only fictional character

1173
01:02:48,960 --> 01:02:51,000
'to have been given
this incredible accolade.'

1174
01:02:51,000 --> 01:02:53,960
Mr Poirot achieved fame
as a private investigator

1175
01:02:53,960 --> 01:02:58,960
after he retired as a member
of the Belgian police force in 1904.

1176
01:02:58,960 --> 01:03:01,960
His career, as chronicled in the
novels of Dame Agatha Christie,

1177
01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:04,960
was one of the most
illustrious in fiction.

1178
01:03:04,960 --> 01:03:07,960
At the end of his life, he was
arthritic and had a bad heart.

1179
01:03:07,960 --> 01:03:11,160
He was in a wheelchair often
and was carried from his bedroom

1180
01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:13,960
to the public lounge
at Styles Court,

1181
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:17,480
a Nursing Home in Essex,
wearing a wig and false moustaches

1182
01:03:17,480 --> 01:03:21,480
to mask the signs of age
that offended his vanity.

1183
01:03:21,480 --> 01:03:23,960
We wanted to believe he was real.

1184
01:03:23,960 --> 01:03:26,960
We thought we knew him.
We do know him.

1185
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:30,960
And the joy is, we can
we can go on knowing him forever.

1186
01:03:31,960 --> 01:03:36,960
'In 1976, one year after Poirot's
final story was published,

1187
01:03:36,960 --> 01:03:40,160
'Agatha Christie passed away.'

1188
01:03:40,160 --> 01:03:43,960
I think we should remember
Agatha Christie as a genius.

1189
01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:47,320
As a unique figure
in popular culture and literature.

1190
01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:53,320
I don't think we'll ever
tire of meeting... Her characters.

1191
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:56,960
And therefore, spending time
with Agatha Christie

1192
01:03:56,960 --> 01:03:58,320
will always be a pleasure.

1193
01:03:58,320 --> 01:04:01,960
My children will be reading them,
their children will be reading them.

1194
01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:02,960
She's going to go on and on.

1195
01:04:02,960 --> 01:04:04,960
I don't think
she will ever be surpassed

1196
01:04:04,960 --> 01:04:07,000
as the world's greatest novelist.

1197
01:04:10,960 --> 01:04:13,640
Agatha Christie achieved a level
of success

1198
01:04:13,640 --> 01:04:16,960
that possibly no other writer
has ever known.

1199
01:04:16,960 --> 01:04:19,960
And she couldn't have done it
without the most enduring creation,

1200
01:04:19,960 --> 01:04:20,960
Hercule Poirot.

1201
01:04:20,960 --> 01:04:24,960
For 100 years, through twisting
tales of murder and intrigue,

1202
01:04:24,960 --> 01:04:28,960
they've been thrilling readers
and audiences across the globe.

1203
01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:37,960
With Agatha Christie,
you never know the ending.

1204
01:04:37,960 --> 01:04:43,960
So, where does this story end? Well,
that's the twist. There is no end.

1205
01:04:43,960 --> 01:04:48,000
Because I think the mysterious
case of Agatha Christie and Poirot

1206
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:51,960
will remain open for many,
many generations to come.

1207
01:04:51,960 --> 01:04:54,960
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