The ‘detestable, bombastic, egocentric’ detective — Hercule Poirot lives on

With all the enormous fuss over Sherlock on the telly, David Suchet’s recent retirement from Poirot should not be forgotten. What an incredible innings! The actor finally hung up his patent-leather shoes after a quarter-century of playing the sleuth in 70 stories. The case is not closed for fans, however. Agatha Christie’s Belgian brainbox — to whom a speck of dirt on a cuff is more agonising than a bullet wound — has already returned. He is on stage in the form of Robert Powell, famous for once playing Jesus of Nazareth. The play is Black Coffee, Christie’s first play and the only one with Hercule Poirot in it.

Poirot, a Belgian refugee from the first world war, made his début in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Pretty quickly, Poirot’s creator decided he was ‘a detestable, bombastic, tiresome, egocentric little creep’. Her readers didn’t agree and she was lumbered with him.