A Recent Encounter with a Little Belgian Detective
For those of you that enjoy the British mystery series centering on Agatha Christie's famous slueth, this book will be a treat. After twenty-five years of playing the little Belgian detective, David Suchet has gifted his fans with an autobiographical account of his time as Hercule Poirot.
Suchet offers firsthand anecdotes of his experience with fans:
I wanted to just take a little time away from the hustle and bustle of the [filming] unit to collect my thoughts. In full costume, complete with my Homburg and cane, I walked just round the corner in to a peaceful side street to stand on my own and think about what was to come.
Quite suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a little old lady walking slowly towards me on my side of the street, pushing one of those square shopping trolleys with four wheels, clearly on her way home. I did not say anything at all, but when she reached me, she stopped.
'Hello Monsieur Poirot,' she said, with her head cocked to one side.
For a moment I was at a loss to know what to say. Should I respond as Poirot? Do I respond as David Suchet? What voice should I choose?
I made my decision.
'Bonjour, madame,' I said, sticking firmly to the little Belgian's voice and manners.
The little old lady smiled, and then a look of uncertainty spread slowly across her face.
'There hasn't been any trouble, has there?' she asked, her voice aquiver. 'I mean, there hasn't been a murder or anything?'
This is one among many entertaining nuggets throughout the book.
More enthralling to the Poirot fan, though, is the information Suchet provides about how he worked to present the character of Hercule Poirot in a manner faithful to Agatha Christie's portrayal. This included learning to walk in a mincing manner by practicing with a penny between his cheeks. Early on in the series, it also included standoffs with the production crew over Poirot's wardrobe, his mannerisms, and his lines.
When he was cast for the part, Suchet had never read a single Christie novel, though he had previously played Chief Inspector Japp across from Peter Ustinov's Poirot in Thirteen at Dinner. This meant that Suchet had to quickly study the quirky Belgian to create a convincing part.
He rapidly read many of the Poirot novels, making careful notes of the detectives behavior so he could model every movement faithfully. An amazing artifact, the handwritten list of ninety-three notes on how to portray the little Belgian are included as appendix to this recent autobiography.
In this, Suchet stands apart from many other actors. His main focus was to play Poirot and make him real. He wanted the audience to see Poirot as Christie had imagined, not as a construction of his own mind. Because of Suchet's faithfulness to the characters, the changes to the story that were made to convert the written word to an on-screen production as not as glaring as some recent movie adaptions of British fiction.
This book is a delight to read. As a fan of both the books and the movies, I enjoyed it thoroughly. There are points where Suchet, in attempting to include all his co-workers, tends to provide too much detail about particular episodes. These passages, however, are not too frequent and can be skimmed, so they do not detract from the quality of the book. This book is neither sentimental twaddle nor salacious gossip, but an interesting and lighthearted read.
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Some shameless commerce:
Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of reviewing it. However, I was not required to review this book positively. The opinions expressed above are my own.