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Friday, February 11, 2000

Suchet resurrects Poirot for A&E movies

JEAN PRESCOTT KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE

David Suchet believes Agatha Christie probably MET Hercule Poirot or someone very like him in real life.

"I think she found him, really," Suchet says in an accent one never would mistake for that of the little Belgian detective, perhaps Christie's most popular character. "The Belgians were refugees in the southwest of England where (Christie) was a dispensing nurse (during War War I), and she would have met Belgians there.

"She might have found someone as wonderfully eccentric and irritating yet charming as Poirot," he says.

Only Christie would know better than Suchet who, for six years, donned a padded costume and artificial facial hair to play Poirot with such affection and conviction as to be able to convince those of us who watched that he truly was the prissy little man with the overactive gray cells.

"Women find him very attractive," says Suchet, "though I don't quite know what they like -- his manners? His little twinkle?

"I believe it's his manners and etiquette, and I did, in fact, once get a letter from a very sad lady who asked me if she could spend just one day on the arm of Hercule Poirot so that she could know what it was like to be with a real gentleman."

The little detective has helped to raise Suchet's visibility, and as a result, people have begun to accost him in the street, "irrespective of the fact that I am so different -- thinner, and I certainly don't have that accent.

"I was walking with my wife and two children in Oslo (Norway) on holiday, and as protection against the sun, I was wearing a hat and sunglasses; nevertheless, a woman in her mid-20s followed us and came up to me later in a coffee bar. She said, `You're David Suchet. I could just tell you anywhere.`

"Not Hercule Poirot," he says, "but David Suchet! The fans are now worldwide, though when it started on British TV, I had no idea it would be so popular. In fact, I got into a bit of trouble by telling a reporter that I thought the whole thing might be a bit boring."

Suchet couldn't have been farther off-base, at least where American audiences are concerned. His popularity as Poirot -- on PBS' "Mystery!" and, more recently, on A&E's "Mysteries to Die For" series -- has been equaled only by that of the late Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Suchet admits that Poirot is wonderful to play, and he has said that it is one of his fondest wishes to bring all of the Poirot novels and short stories to the screen, up to and including the final one, "Curtain," in which the little man finally dies. He is off to an enthusiastic start with two new Poirot stories being brought to the small screen as original movies by A&E. The first, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," airs at 7 p.m. Sunday (and will be repeated at 9 and 11 p.m.).

"This is a wonderful novel, a WONDERFUL novel," Suchet says. "You know Christie tried to do all sorts of things with Poirot, and in this one, he has retired to the country, growing marrow (a kind of squash). The speech that I speak about my marrow is lifted directly from the pages of that novel." Unfortunately for Poirot's old friend Roger Ackroyd -- fortunately for the viewer -- the man's murder fans the flames of Poirot's passion for crime solving, and we're off to the races with a bevy of suspects and a reunion between Poirot and his old partner, Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson). Japp even convinces Poirot to visit his old London flat where the little
detective is unprepared to confront the ghosts of his former career.

"The scene in which he is looking over his flat, and everything is covered in white sheets," Suchet says, "the images remind him of the ghosts of the past, but they are ghosts in his mind, and they will be resurrected in the next story ("Lord Edgware Dies")," which also will see the return of Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, and his associate, Capt. Hastings (Hugh Fraser).

"These are the first new stories in five years," Suchet says. "Poirot finished in London five years ago; he wasn't going to be made anymore. But apparently he was so popular here that Arts & Entertainment said they were willing to pay for new ones.

"We're waiting to hear now if they would want to do more. I would love to do them all."

In the interim, Suchet plays Antonio Salieri in "Amadeus" on Broadway and prepares to celebrate, later this month, 31 years as an actor. "Actors act," he says. "The worst thing an agent can say to an actor - and I've heard it said -- is that your greatest asset is your availability." David Suchet will be unavailable for some time.

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