I’ve just
come in from a Ministers’ Breakfast and over the bacon rolls my part of the
table was talking about a colleague who so loved films that he showed almost a
clip a week during his sermons. When his
successor was called to that church the deacons, who’d had enough of
illustrations from the silver screen, respectfully asked if he would refrain
from showing film clips, at least for the next couple of years.
Well I’m going to be a little self-indulgent today and write not of the big but small screen and the demise last night on our TVs of one of my all time favourite characters, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Today I’m still in mourning – I even woke in the night feeling sad!!
Well I’m going to be a little self-indulgent today and write not of the big but small screen and the demise last night on our TVs of one of my all time favourite characters, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Today I’m still in mourning – I even woke in the night feeling sad!!
This
television adaptation played by the wonderful David Suchet has been with us for
almost twenty five years and I’ve seen most of the seventy episodes at least
three times (I know I should get out more!).
Of course it’s murder done with such finesse, respectability and implausibility as to make it, generally, totally unbelievable yet very enjoyable!
In this quarter of a century we’ve got to know this funny Belgium sleuth with his penchant for spats, moustaches, and silver tipped walking canes. Over the years his character has grown more melancholy and reflective.
I read the final book ‘Curtain’ whilst on a Boys and Girls Brigade camp in Devon a few years ago. We bought it at Greenway, Christie’s house on the banks of the Dart. I remember hiding in my tent avidly reading this ‘page turner’ chronicling Poirot’s last outing. Ironically I’ve lent the book out, can’t remember to whom and need a detective to take up the case for its return!
I couldn’t watch last night’s final episode live as I was at a very well attended meeting of Churches Together in Amersham and Chesham Bois. But I didn’t hang around afterwards returning home eager to see if the TV recorder had done its job.
Well either you share with me this love of Poirot or the preceding paragraphs have left you wandering if I need some sort of therapy! And in a way the books and programmes are nothing more than entertainment.
Yet...there is something about the integrity of Suchet’s acting that I find deeply touching. That, combined with Christie’s writing, has given us a detective who is passionate for the truth, always keen to champion the wrongly accused even if the authorities and public want a quick prosecution – and most of all a man who hates murder with such a passion because he so obviously loves life. So even though these programmes have never been intentional sermons, they have made something of a spiritual connection with my own ‘little grey cells’!
Farewell Poirot - and a thousand thanks to David Suchet!
Best wishes,
Of course it’s murder done with such finesse, respectability and implausibility as to make it, generally, totally unbelievable yet very enjoyable!
In this quarter of a century we’ve got to know this funny Belgium sleuth with his penchant for spats, moustaches, and silver tipped walking canes. Over the years his character has grown more melancholy and reflective.
I read the final book ‘Curtain’ whilst on a Boys and Girls Brigade camp in Devon a few years ago. We bought it at Greenway, Christie’s house on the banks of the Dart. I remember hiding in my tent avidly reading this ‘page turner’ chronicling Poirot’s last outing. Ironically I’ve lent the book out, can’t remember to whom and need a detective to take up the case for its return!
I couldn’t watch last night’s final episode live as I was at a very well attended meeting of Churches Together in Amersham and Chesham Bois. But I didn’t hang around afterwards returning home eager to see if the TV recorder had done its job.
Well either you share with me this love of Poirot or the preceding paragraphs have left you wandering if I need some sort of therapy! And in a way the books and programmes are nothing more than entertainment.
Yet...there is something about the integrity of Suchet’s acting that I find deeply touching. That, combined with Christie’s writing, has given us a detective who is passionate for the truth, always keen to champion the wrongly accused even if the authorities and public want a quick prosecution – and most of all a man who hates murder with such a passion because he so obviously loves life. So even though these programmes have never been intentional sermons, they have made something of a spiritual connection with my own ‘little grey cells’!
Farewell Poirot - and a thousand thanks to David Suchet!
Best wishes,
Ian
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