After nearly 25 years and 70 episodes, it seems that David Suchet’s marathon stint as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is to come to an end. Suchet has been playing the role, created by the legendary crime writer Agatha Christie, since 1989.
In that time there have been three James Bonds, six Doctor Whos and at least five Sherlock Holmes. It’s an incredible achievement but it is now time for Poirot to solve his last case.
Fittingly, the last episode is called Curtain, and will bring to an end one of TV longest running detective series. It even outlasts our very own Midsomer Murders, which started in 1997, making it a mere teenager compared to Poirot (in TV years, that is). However, Midsomer has been able to make a few more episodes, clocking up its centenary this year with a special episode teaming up with Denmark’s The Killing.
Of course, there is another link between the two shows. Poirot’s creator Agatha Christie is one of the most famous residents of the Southern Oxfordshire town of Wallingford. As many regular readers will know, Wallingford and many other towns in the region feature heavily in many of the Midsomer Murder episodes that have been filmed over the years. It seems there is an established link between Southern Oxfordshire and great crime fiction.
We’d like to wish David and all the crew on Poirot well and thank them for the hours of incredible entertainment they have given us over the years. We like to think that Midsomer has come close to replicating this joy and that it too can reach it’s 25th birthday and still be in as good shape as Poirot.