Suchet's versatility as an actor – and his careful spacing of the Poirots to average fewer than three a year – has prevented his becoming trapped by the character. The episode was adapted in 2013.Although it is common in music for a pianist to play, for example, a complete Beethoven cycle, and Simon Ruselll Beale has performed in radio dramatisations of all John Le Carre's George Smiley books, such completism is almost impossible in television because of the level of commitment required from both performers – who understandably fear typecasting – and network executives, who are prone to changes of mind and fashion: ITV is unrecognisable in personnel and structure from when the first Poirot was shown almost quarter of a century ago. The first actor to take on the role of portraying Poirot in his final hours was David Suchet, as the final episode of the series Agatha Christie’s Poirot for which he’d been playing the role for twenty-five years. The reception of Poirot’s death was international, even earning him an obituary in The New York Times he is still the only fictional character to have received such an honour. It was agreed among the family that Curtain would be published finally in 1975 by Collins, her long-standing publishers, and that Sleeping Murder (the Marple story written during the war for her husband, Max) would follow. The story was both anticipated and dreaded by Agatha Christie fans worldwide, many of whom still refuse to read it, as it is known to contain Poirot’s death.Īgatha Christie wrote it during World War II, as a gift for her daughter should she not survive the bombings, and it was kept in a safe for over thirty years. Poirot’s final case, a mystery which brings him and Hastings back to Styles where they first solved a crime together. Already responsible for several murders, X, Poirot warns, is ready to strike again, and the partners must work swiftly to prevent imminent murder. Though aware of the criminal's identity, Poirot will not reveal it to the frustrated Hastings, and dubs the nameless personage 'X'.

Arthritic and immobilized, Poirot calls on his old friend Captain Hastings to join him at Styles to be the eyes and ears that will feed observations to Poirot's still razor sharp mind.

Final poirot book