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Part 4
My favourite male star…
Suchet: It’s so difficult to choose... - you know, who are my favourite male stars, co-stars - but - er - yeah, well, although I say it’s difficult, it’s not really, because - er, these have to bee Hugh Fraser, who plays Hastings and Phil Jackson, who plays inspector Japp. They are not only wonderful actors, wonderful people, but the characters they have embodied and made them totally themselves, and as far as Hugh [laughs] Phil Jackson is concerned, I know, because I played inspector Japp, er, so badly myself very long time ago. So he has done a magic job with his. And Hugh - er - how difficult it is, actually, to play that character with someone like Poirot. All the time, having to say things like [imitating Hastings voice]: “I say, Poirot...“ er: “Good God!” And all that sor-trying, you know, it’s very hard, and, and he’s maintained it over the years fantastically. Er, Japp - er, always getting it wrong, so that Poirot can get it right...
 - I don’t know why I bother, sometimes… I may as well stay at home and do my garden…!
My two - little, er, favourite moments, really, had nothing to do with the stories, they had to do with meeting. But in the moments of meeting - Hastings and Japp - you will se how the different characters respond. And the first time, I remember this happening, was with Hugh Fraser in, well, the first story that Agatha Christie ever wrote about Poirot, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. And, er - Poirot’s, you know, visiting the Bel-Belgium refugees [in? of?] the First World War, and he first met Hastings in the First World War in Belgium or in France, wherever, and - they meet for the first time in England in a country village...
Poirot: "Hastings?" Hastings: "Good Lord - Monsieur Poirot!" Poirot: "It is indeed, mon ami, Hastings!"
Hastings: "I was talking about you only the other day!" Poirot: "Oh, mon ami, mon ami!"
And with Japp? It was in the story called The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Very famous story, a great story, but Poirot had retired almost, he h-had given up, and he hadn’t seen Japp for ages. And - there is a wonderful moment when they meet. And you see the difference when meeting Hastings in The Mysterious Affair at Styles and the meeting between Poirot and Inspector Japp.
Hugs and kisses are not Japp's 'cup of tea...'
- a handshake is more like it...
The other moment with Japp, which is very funny, is in, er, The Veiled Lady, isn’t it, when Poirot gets dressed up as a lock maker and he breaks into somebody’s house to try and find, er, evidence, and he’s caught by the police. And he is put in jail. And I remember Japp looking through the jail cell door, er, looking at Poirot with great glee, and having a great deal of fun of Poirot. And we had great lot of fun, doing it, too [laughs]. I remember that very well...
Vicious looking character, isn’t he!
Warden: What is his name!
- this is not funny, Japp!
- well, nobody knows his real name… - but everyone calls him Mad Dog!"
We’d learned - the more we trusted each other, and the more we enjoyed each other, er, the more we have fun together... er, and - you know, people even now write to me and say "oh, I love it when you and Ja-er, Hastings are together, when you and Japp are together, or when Hastings and Japp are together..." They are two… great leading men!
End of Part 4
Part 5
My all time favourite...
Suchet: And I remember being on set one day, I remember it very vividly... I was asked to put sugar in my, my tea. Now, he puts so many teaspoons, but when it comes to sugar lumps - I was at a loss! Do I take t-three? Was it five? Was it four? Was it? - and I couldn’t remember, and I didn’t have my sheets of paper - and we’re shooting! Now - I, it doesn’t sound important, does it, but it was to me, because I’m - you know, I’ve always said, I’m the most difficult person, that I have to live with, because I’m a perfectionist. I had to get it right! So, I rang home! To my wife! And I said...: “Sheila, where, where is this peace of paper, can you find the peace of paper with all the characteristics of Poirot!” “What!” Yeah, so and so and so - “How many lumps of sugar does he take!” Well I didn’t say that, actually, [be]cause [I was saying ?] [switch to Poirot accent]: “How many lumps of sugar does Poirot take? Can you please tell to me, how many lumps of sugar...” - You know, she is used to this, it’s ok, it happens, you know... So, [laughing] she says - she finds the peace of paper, and I’ve written on it - she says - er...: “Three!” [switch to Poirot accent]: “Oh, no, three! I think...” [switch to his own voice] “Hold on, hold on - sometimes five!” [switch to Poirot accent again]: “Ah, thank you - good bye!”.... [laughing] - I mean... yeah, [?] crazy [?] I mean... - but you gotta get it right, you gotta get it right, because that’s what makes him so special...
 Suchet/Poirot calls for help in the case of a famous detective’s sugar habits...
Everytime I do a, a, a, a story, I think to myself, as I go home at the end: ‘I think that was my favourite’, you know, ‘I think that was my favourite...' - and I haven’t finished them all yet, I mean there is still, er, at the moment of speaking, there is still 12 more to go! But - if I’m forced to - er, choose - I would - pick out “Death on the Nile”. I’d choose it because - er - I was working with the most fantastic cast. You have so many wonderful actors. Faces that everybody will recognize. In a terrific story. And the setting! I mean, for me to actually find myself... not only in Egypt... but amongst all those ancient monuments. I mean, this is British TV at its most expensive - and as far as I’m concerned, it, it looked fantastic! And I was filming on the boat, the same boat that was used by Peter Ustinov in his big movie version. So we ain’t cutting corners here, this is, this is big time! I was very aware that it was Peter Ustinov’s, Poirot’s, boat. And when I first s-took my s-first step on that boat, and I went up the stairs - and I thought, yeah, I remember these stairs... I remember the... - and I’m gonna be playing him...!
 Suchet (in white) just about to step into Peter’s shoes...
I think, I still have that... youthful, joyful naivety - er, about playing Hercule Poirot. And I suppose, it really came in to the fore, when I was actually stepping on to that boat, because I was literally stepping into Peter’s shoes at that time. Er - I loved it! I always get excited, every time I’m asked to do anything with Poirot - and I’ve always been asked, do I get bored, because I’ve played him for, what, now 18, well, the best part of twenty years. And the answer is: no. How can I get bored playing such a fascinating, little quirky man, who happens to be the greatest detective in the world, with some of the greatest mystery stories ever written, by one of our greatest mystery writers. Bored? I should clap my hands and say thank you every night...
'Death on the Nile' by night... One of the beautiful sceneries...
End of Part 5
Part 6
My loneliness as Poirot...
Poirot is a most interesting character apart from anything else, because he is - er - A: an outsider - in - this country, anyway, but he is also an outsider socially. Er - he’s also got a very dark side, he’s, he’s a, he’s a lonely man... Er - I think, I’ve said before, that he believes the relationship with a man and woman, er, a loving relationship, is the greatest gift of God, especially when it ends up in marriage. And he himself very often in Agatha Christie’s books says: "I wish, I had married". And - I try and bring out this quality of Poirot more and more, because I think that, er, it is important. - Er, you know, he lives alone, he has a - man servant, but he is alone in all ways. And he has become self-sufficient, because he’s had to become self-sufficient.
But when, when I do have the opportunity of - not falling in love with another woman on or in the films - but when I - those women that I’m with, will often - make - me aware of my own solitude. Er, one thing that I can think of is, when he was an avuncular to - a character called Katherine Grey, played by Georgina Rylance in “The Blue Train”. She decides to go off travelling on her own, and this comes as a surprise to Poirot. But the surprise [?] itself, I hope for you, the audience, in a sense of loss. In a sense of realization that once more he is on his own...
- on his own... once more...
There is another time, there is a lovely character called Jacqueline De Bellefort, played by Emma Malin, in “Death on the Nile”, where the writers wonderfully have me, Poirot, come to her [on ?] an evening scene on board the ship, that he reveals to her - the loss of his life, again...
Poirot: "Love is not everything!" Jacqueline: "Oh, but it is! It is! You must know that, Monsieur Poirot... Surely you understand... "
"It is terrible, Mademoiselle... All that I have missed in life... "
“Lord Edgware dies” has a character called Jane Wilkinson. Poirot says: “The ticking of a woman has always been a mystery to Poirot”. And he says it in such a way - er, that I remember saying it in such a way, that, it may have been a mystery... it’s the-possibly the only mystery, he’s never solved... but one that he’d like to have solved...
They way I try and play him, is, I’m not asking you to feel sorry for Poirot. Because Poirot doesn’t feel sorry for himself. In fact he fights not to. But yes, there’s, er, I think there are lot of people who’ve watched the series, that actually - would love Poirot to - meet someone - er, to, not only love him, but that he could release and, and, and love - love a lady. And - he wished he could, too...
End of Part 6
December 2007 © All rights reserved
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