Clive Exton (1930-2007) was the principal screenwriter for most of the original Poirot series. He also oversaw a number of scripts as a script consultant. For an overview of his career, see this obituary in The Telegraph. Other notable works, much in the same vein as Poirot, include Jeeves and Wooster (1990-1993), the P. G. Wodehouse stories, with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie), and Rosemary and Thyme (2003-2006), a television series about two female gardening detectives. Exton wrote all 23 episodes of Jeeves and Wooster at the same time as he was doing Poirot. They are similar, in some ways. Poirot is set in the 1930s, Jeeves and Wooster in the 1920s. Both sets of adaptations have a lot of humour in them, and they both centre on dynamic duos. You could even argue that Rosemary & Thyme follows the same pattern. In any case, that is certainly a very Christie-esque series. However, I should point out that Exton's work as a screenwriter was much broader than just gentle Sunday night television; the obituary in The Guardian focuses on 'his highly individual mixture of black comedy and oblique social criticism'.
Writing about Poirot and Jeeves and Wooster, The Telegraph states in the obituary that 'both adaptations reflected his love of precision in language and his understanding of how people express themselves, as well as his ability to spin out and knit together plot lines from often scanty material'.That is certainly true of his Poirot adaptations, on more than one occasion.
In total, Exton wrote 20 scripts for Poirot (1989-2001). I won't go into detail about every adaptation (have a look at my episode-by-episode posts for that), but I would like to give an overview of his adaptations, and comment on a few of them.
For Series One, he adapted 'The Adventure of the Clapham Cook', 'Murder in the Mews', 'The Adventure of Johnny Waverley', 'Problem at Sea', 'The Incredible Theft' and 'The Dream'. Overall, the adaptations stay impressively close to their source material. This was before the screenwriters felt the need to add lengthy chase scenes or make changes to murderers, motives and plot essentials. Exton does, however, initiate a significant deviation from Christie by introducing the Poirot 'family'; Hastings, Japp and Miss Lemon appear in nearly every episode until Series Eight. He also expands their back stories, with an added car interest for Hastings, and eventually an interest in the occult for Miss Lemon. In the 2007 Super Sleuths documentary, Exton explains: 'I do think, for a television series, you need a basic family unit, whether it's a family or not; people who interact with each other. Also, it's very useful, for a not very clever writer like me, to have somebody for Poirot to confide in.'
Personally, I think Exton made the right decision. ITV intended Poirot to become its Sunday night drama 'flagship'. To make people tune in week after week, there had to be something more than just Christie's murder plots to make the nation (and later the world) tune in. His approach to the main cast, 'the big four', also seemed in tune with the short stories on which the early adaptations were based. Christie's short stories are generally much lighter than her novels. Personally, I'm also convinced that Exton and the Poirot team, like Christie, were inspired by the successful Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series, in which the detective is surrounded by Watson, Mrs Hudson and Inspector Lestrade.
For Series Two, Exton did Peril at End House, 'The Veiled Lady', 'The Cornish Mystery', 'Double Sin', 'The Kidnapped Prime Minister' and 'The Adventure of the Western Star'. After the success of the first series, the Poirot team had decided to make some changes. Most importantly, Suchet wanted to make Poirot more human. He explains the process: 'Clive Exton's script certainly helped me. For he too wanted a little more humour in the new series, to make Poirot a bit more moving. It was an excellent idea, even if I sometimes had to restrain him from going too far towards making the little Belgian a comic character, for that certainly was not the Poirot I knew and wanted to portray. But at the same time, Clive also brightened both Hastings and Japp, making them a little less stiff. All this helped to make the films feel more affectionate towards Poirot than some of the first series. (Poirot and Me 2013 p. 77). I suppose nearly all of the above episodes had more humour in them, from Poirot in disguise to the Belgian film star Marie Marvelle. Generally speaking, Exton's scripts are faithful, but some of the additions (or time slot filler) doesn't always work. Suchet admits: 'I'm afraid I was never really happy with Double Sin, The Adventure of the Cheap Flat and The Adventure of the Western Star. They all seemed a little flat to me, a little too one-dimensional compared to the others.' (p. 84-85). However, Exton's adaptation of Peril at End House works particularly well, and I notice that it has a tendency to pop up on people's lists of their favourite episodes.
For Series Three, Exton adapted only two episodes; The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and 'The Theft of the Royal Ruby' (co-written with Anthony Horowitz). The Styles adaptation is near-perfect, with very understandable changes and a genuine respect for the source material. The same could (almost) be said of 'The Theft of the Royal Ruby', but here we have another of those slightly annoying chase scenes added.
The two novel adaptations that followed for Series Four are interesting, in more ways than one. Both mark a significant shift towards darker material and darker adaptations that would eventually take over from the cosy family unit. The ABC Murders is a particularly successful adaptation (though, again, with an added chase scene at the denouement); Suchet frequently refers to it as his personal favourite. The serial killer plot, and particularly the way Exton adapts it to the screen, significantly darkens the series. The second novel, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, opens with a particularly brutal murder scene and has an eerier atmosphere throughout. For those who claim Exton was stuck in his family unit, then, his Series Four adaptations should prove essential viewing. Likewise for those who claim the shift towards darkness in Series Nine was sudden.
For Series Five, Exton adapted 'The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb' and 'The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman'. Both adaptations work, particularly the first, but I think that is more due to its setting than its plot. The second is, yet again, weakened by a lengthy chase scene. Why Exton insisted on adding these scenes I will never understand. Obviously, they are perfect padding to slight stories, but they do seem more and more as an 'easy' way out. He makes up for this in his adaptation for Series Six, though. Hercule Poirot's Christmas is classic Christie, and the adaptation is generally quite successful.
When Poirot returned after its four-year hiatus for Series Seven, Exton seemed to have lost his way somewhat. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has some interesting points in its favour (for instance, I'm very fond of the opening lines from Poirot on the brutality of humanity), but the denouement doesn't work at all, and I'm not convinced the voice-over was the best way to keep Christie's ingenious twist. Suchet says of the episode: 'I felt it lacked something. I am not sure exactly why; perhaps it had something to do with my expectations being too high. The denouement was exciting and unexpected - it should have been marvellous, but somehow, there was something missing.' (Poirot and Me p. 187). Unfortunately, Murder in Mesopotamia for Series Eight is another questionable endeavour. The addition of Hastings feels contrived, and the story itself seems as though it has run out of steam.
In summation, then, how could I describe Exton's legacy? Despite his tendency to use chase scenes as padding, and his sometimes contrived attempts at keeping 'the unit', I remain convinced he was the right man for the job when the series began. For one, he was a Christie fan, and handled her most 'classic' stories with great care. More importantly, to establish the family unit was an ingenious move; I'm sure that helped establish Agatha Christie's Poirot as the phenomenon it is today (Hastings, Miss Lemon and Japp have almost become cult figures!).
In the coming weeks and months I will examine and discuss some of the key members of the Poirot production team, with particular focus on their work on Poirot, of course. My initial plan was to look at these crew members in chronological order, so to speak, but when I read about the sad passing of Kevin Elyot yesterday, it felt natural to start with him.
Kevin Elyot (1951-2014) was a British playwright and screenwriter. I won't attempt to discuss his career in detail. For that, I refer to this well-written obituary. The Guardian's Michael Coveney summed up his subject (as a writer) as 'the longing for love and remembrance of loves lost'. This is certainly true of some of his non-Poirot work that I've read or seen, like My Night with Reg, Clapham Junction and Christopher and His Kind. But it's also true of his Poirot (and Marple) adaptations.
Elyot adapted three Poirot novels for the series: Five Little Pigs, Death on the Nile and Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. The tragic story of the Crale family, Jacqueline de Bellefort's vendetta, and the final hour of the friendship between Poirot and Hastings - all these adaptations could fall under that phrase in The Guardian. In an behind-the-scenes interview, Eylot explained the appeal of Poirot to him:
'What appealed - appeals - to me about him is that he's a foreigner, and an outsider, a refugee, in a very class-ridden, and snobbish, and xenophobic society. That instantly gives any situation he's in an edge, and I find that very... full of potential.' (Behind the Scenes: Death on the Nile, 2004)
I'm not in any way qualified to make assumptions based on Elyot's career, but that seems to fit in well with his record of writing 'gay stories', in lack of a better phrase, stories about outsiders, often faced with prejudices from the society around them. Poirot is a 'bloody little frog', as one character describes him, and he is frequently met with a substantial amount of scepticism, even in the three stories Elyot adapted. For instance, in Five Little Pigs:
'As he had often felt lately, things were not what they used to be. Dash it all, private detectives used to be private detectives - fellows you got to guard wedding presents at country receptions, fellows you went to - rather shame-facedly - when there was some dirty business afoot and you'd got to get the hang of it. But here was Lady Mary Lytton-Gore writing (...) And Lady Mary Lytton-Gore wasn't - no, decidedly she wasn't - the sort of woman tou associate with private detectives (...) And Admiral Cronshaw (...) And now here was the man himself. Really a most impossible person - the wrong clothes - button boots - an incredible moustache! Not his - Meredith Blake's - kind of fellow at all. Didn't look as though he'd ever hunted or shot - or even played a decent game. A foreigner.' (The War Years: Five Little Pigs, p. 222)
Personally, I cherish Elyot's adaptations, all three of them. Five Little Pigs, as a whole, is still my favourite Poirot episode. It's a difficult novel to adapt successfully, with internal monologues and observations, and I think the balance was just about right between flashbacks to the past and the present day. Curtain was faithfully and accurately adapted, with the right amount of sensitivity to its themes. An apt farewell with a beloved character. Death on the Nile was possibly less successful, particularly with some of the changes to the minor characters, but nonetheless among the better episodes of the entire series. The scene, singled out by David Suchet in several interviews, between Jacqueline and Poirot, with dialogue borrowed from Dead Man's Folly, is a magnificent glimpse of that character trait that would blossom both in later novels and in later adaptations; Poirot's longing for love and remembrance of loves lost (think Vera Rossakoff, Verginie Mesnard and 'the mystery of love').
As such, I think Elyot brilliantly managed to move the character of Poirot on, to deepen, in collaboration with Suchet of course, the interpretation and add layers and dimensions. Regardless of what some fans might think of his more radical changes (mercifully fewer between on Poirot than on Marple), he deserves praise for that accomplishment. To me, he remains one of the best Poirot screenwriters.
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| (c) ITV |
This is a very special blog post! Screenwriter and actor Ian Hallard kindly offered to do a Q&A on the process of adapting Agatha Christie's Poirot stories for television. He has co-written The Big Four (2013) with Mark Gatiss, and acted as a script associate on the other adaptations Gatiss has scripted, Cat Among the Pigeons (2008) and Hallowe'en Party (2010). He also played Edmund Drake in Hallowe'en Party, and appeared in a cameo as Mercutio in The Big Four.
This Q&A offers a rare glimpse behind-the-scenes of the television series we all love. A big thanks to Hallard for taking the time to do this!
SPOILERS on Cat Among the Pigeons, Hallowe'en Party and The Big Four follow. Don't read on if you haven't seen the adaptations.
1) You and Mark have adapted some of the ‘impossible’ Christies. Were you commissioned for these or could you choose from the remaining novels?
Mark was approached due to an existing working relationship with Damien Timmer, the executive producer on the Christies, and asked if he’d be interested in adapting one of the remaining stories. That must have been in about 2005 or 2006, by which time most of the classic novels had already been produced, and ITV were left with an increasingly diminishing pile of books which, with the best will in the world, could not be described as the cream of Dame Agatha’s oeuvre! Nevertheless, we are both lifelong Christie lovers, so we jumped at the chance to collaborate on them. Mark initially said he’d be interested in ‘The Big Four’ purely because of the challenge involved, but instead he was asked to consider ‘Cat among the Pigeons’. Then, a couple of years later, we were asked to do ‘Hallowe’en Party’, presumably because they thought it would be a good match for Mark and his sense of the macabre. And finally, when the last 5 stories were greenlit, after all those years, the call came for ‘The Big Four’. So we pretty much did the ones we were assigned, with the exception of requesting ‘The Big Four’. Though we definitely got the impression that no one else was clamouring to adapt it!
2) How does the process work? Page by page? Script meetings? Producer/Suchet involvement? Number of drafts?
It varies from one script to the next. Usually there will be some kind of discussion with the production team about what we and they think the story needs, and what is achievable on the budget and within the 90 minute time scale. ‘Cat’ was relatively straightforward to adapt, as the structure is strong, and we were able to stick pretty closely to the story beats of the original. ‘Hallowe’en’ is more rambling, so that required more work, and then ‘Four’ even more so. Mark and I spend hours, days, weeks(!), forensically dissecting every element of the plot and the characters – deciding on any themes we want to highlight and what we think is expendable. We talk through all the potential plot holes, logic problems and any restructuring of the plot. Then finally we get on with the writing of it! Once the first draft is delivered, we meet with the producer and the script editor to discuss it, we agree on a set of notes, and then we work on a second draft and the process continues until we’re all happy with what we have. As you get nearer to the shoot and the director has come on board, he may suggest a change based on a particular location that has been found and which would work particularly well for a specific moment. David Suchet deliberately chooses only to read the very last draft or two, because he doesn’t want to get too attached to a scene, a character or even a line that may end up being cut!
3) What constraints are placed on you by ITV, the Christie estate, and the producers? (e.g. costs, creative licence, series continuity, character development?)
We’ve had relatively free rein regarding creative decisions, although it’s a collaborative process, and every adaptation has involved lengthy discussions about what stays and what goes and the overall tenor of an episode.
Some of the decisions are purely logistical. For example, with ‘Hallowe’en’ we were told right from the start that Zoe Wanamaker was only available for the first two weeks of the shoot, which unfortunately meant that Ariadne’s involvement in the story had to be limited in some way. We came up with the idea of a cold confining her to her bed, meaning she could still be a continuing presence, but also that all her scenes could be shot all at once over a day or two and so hopefully you don’t feel her absence too strongly!
You’re constantly aware that even for a high budget, prestige show like ‘Poirot’, the funds are not limitless. So, as we write, we’re bearing in mind that if we include any more than sixteen or so guest speaking characters, we’re going to be asked to cull some of them. Equally, during filming, moving between multiple locations is time-consuming and expensive, so a producer will always be grateful if you can limit the number of different locations, and put as many scenes as possible in the same place. (This is particularly relevant in a more ‘episodic’ story like ‘The Big Four’.)
4) Hastings, Japp and Miss Lemon are back! Could you describe the process of reintroducing them?
Well, we always knew that Hastings was going to be returning in ‘Curtain’, so we wanted ‘The Big Four’ to be mostly Japp’s farewell story. In fact, we were concerned that, after all this time, the emotional impact of Hastings and Poirot’s reunion in ‘Curtain’ might be diluted if we’d only just seen the two of them so recently. For a while we debated whether Hastings should appear in our episode at all! Hopefully we ended up having the best of both worlds by only bringing Poirot and Hastings together in the final minute of the episode.
It was Damien Timmer who suggested we use this as a final ‘walkdown’ for the Old Guard, and of course it’s a nice coincidence that ‘The Big Four’ can refer to Poirot, Hastings, Lemon and Japp as well.
Also – and I don’t think this is really a spoiler – the fact that Poirot stages his own death in the novel gave us the opportunity of dramatising his funeral with his oldest friends, which isn’t something you’ll see in ‘Curtain’.
In terms of their backstories, it’s muddied a bit by the fact that in the series’ chronology, it’s only actually been a couple of years since they all saw each other, whereas of course, in the real world, it’s more like eleven or twelve! Consequently, we’re in a strange situation where the gap feels much longer for the audience than it does for the characters! As a result, we decided to keep the time scale and the circumstances deliberately vague. We wanted a sense that they had drifted apart as people often do, and that as Poirot himself has aged and become a more sombre and solitary character, they have not been part of each other’s lives very much. We leave it to the audience’s imagination as to why this might have come about, but Miss Lemon’s line that she supposes Poirot must have grown used to acting on his own these days, hints at a certain melancholy which fits in with the mood of these final valedictory episodes.
5) Purists’ reactions to the plot changes are mixed, particularly the new ‘denouement’, Achille/Vera/Tysoe. Why were these changes made?
We’ve approached every script with the intention of maximising its strengths and staying as true to the source material as possible. Nothing gets altered or omitted without good reason. Of the three we’ve worked on, ‘The Big Four’ is obviously the adaptation that departs most significantly from the novel – and this is for a variety of reasons.
It’s no coincidence that it’s been left till the very end, and although the book is a lot of fun, I think you’d be hard pressed to describe it as any kind of classic: it does show signs of being cobbled together in a hurry. Poirot suddenly becomes a mixture of Sherlock Holmes and a pre-Bond James Bond; globetrotting, getting kidnapped and blown up, all of which is not very consistent with the character we’ve seen develop in the TV series over the years, especially now he’s in his old age. In addition, the villain who is a ‘master of disguise’ is all very well on the page - but how do you successfully conceal the same actor playing five or six different parts without either the characters or your audience twigging? And the Fu Manchu-like evil ‘Chinaman’ definitely feels like a product of its time and wasn’t an element of the story that we particularly wanted to perpetuate in the twenty-first century!
The one instruction we had from ITV and the producers when we started work was that the adaptation had to, as much as possible, resemble a traditional episode of 'Poirot'. And of course, we knew that the budget would never stretch to filming in a variety of foreign locations with a guest cast of thirty to forty characters. So it was always a case of trying to come up with something which represented the fun and craziness of the novel, whilst still grounding it in some kind of reality.
We decided to focus on the three murder mysteries within the story – ‘Leg of Mutton’, ‘Chess Problem’ and ‘Yellow Jasmine’, as we thought these were stronger than the pure ‘thriller’ episodes where Hastings or Poirot get kidnapped and then escape from the villains. The problem we encountered is that once you accept the notion of the Big Four as this incredibly powerful cabal, with limitless supplies of wealth, power and intelligence at their disposal, the cases do end up seeming rather trivial. For example, in ‘Chess Problem’, Christie has Number Four spending months masquerading as Dr Savaranoff in order to inherit his money. But why bother when you have Abe Ryland – the richest man in the world – on your team?! Then there’s ‘Leg of Mutton’ which has a clever solution, but again, if the terrifying and all-powerful Big Four want to kill off Whalley, why mess about having to dress up as a butcher in order to do it?
So Mark came up with the idea that rather than the Big Four being real, they could all be the fantasy of just one man. That would explain why some of the cases might at first seem comparatively inconsequential, and remove the curse of the secret society which “sounded like something out of a book”. It also gave us something the book doesn’t have and which you ideally want in a Poirot episode – a twist for Poirot to reveal at the denouement. And given that in the book Darrell is an actor, it seemed logical to play up that element and explore the theatrical setting.
We needed a way for our villain to publicise his scheme. How about an ambitious journalist to do the job, and whip up some public hysteria in the febrile atmosphere of 1939? Enter Tysoe. He was then able to be a conduit between Darrell and Poirot and provide a succession of false clues and red herrings.
We lost Countess Rossakoff because we couldn’t find a way to work her into the narrative in this new structure. With Japp, Lemon and Hastings also around, plus the three separate murder mysteries, there simply wasn’t time to do justice to her. And again, we knew she was going to feature in ‘The Labours of Hercules’, so we felt we could cut her with a clear conscience!
Deleting Achille was a much harder decision. It had been one of the things that we’d been excited about doing when embarking on ‘The Big Four’. However, the idea of Achille just being a clone of Hercule seemed a bit dull and rather a wasted opportunity, so for a long while, we considered making him a complete contrast to Poirot: an unshaven, slovenly womaniser. But whilst this would have been fun, ultimately we couldn’t imagine Poirot being able to suppress his fastidiousness sufficiently to convince in the role. He isn’t a master of disguise like Sherlock Holmes after all – so would Japp and the others have gone along with the charade despite presumably seeing through it? (Not even Japp is that stupid, after all!) It would have been fun, but with the plot steam-rolling its way to its conclusion, it just ended up being another element that we would have had to explain with yet further exposition at the end. A shame to lose him, but we wanted to focus on the funeral and Poirot’s reunion with his friends instead.
I did get a tweet from a very angry man who said he was 'livid' and that Mark and I should be arrested for the outrages we had perpetrated on the book! Well, you're never going to please everybody. If you hate the adaptation that much, you can always go back and read the book and you never have to watch the TV version again! Would purists only be happy if they see every single character and episode from the novel faithfully recreated on the screen? The story has to work for an audience who know nothing of the original material, and who have no interest in seeing it preserved in aspic. As long as we're satisfied we've done the best job we can, that's all we can aim for, although of course it is nice if people enjoy your work, and happily we received plenty of positive messages and tweets and only one or two which were negative!
6) Generally speaking, how do you decide what to cut/keep/add/change in the various adaptations?
Sometimes it’s very simple. The novel of 'Cat' had more characters than we could do justice to on screen, so some inevitably had to go, and Miss Vansittart was an obvious candidate. She's really a paler imitation of Miss Bulstrode, so we didn’t feel she would be much missed, plus it made sense to make Miss Rich the second ‘victim’ instead. By having Miss Chadwick fail in her murder attempt, it made her a more sympathetic character, ready for when she redeems herself at the end by saving Miss Bulstrode’s life.
Other changes in ‘Cat’ were made for a bit of added colour. We made Miss Springer nastier, a blackmailer, and killed her with a javelin rather than a gun. (Although when we wrote it we never imagined Ann launching her spear from across the other side of the sports hall - which goes to show you can never predict exactly how a director might choose to interpret your script!)
Ann disguising herself in order to get her hands on the tennis racquet is another example of something which is straightforward on the page but much harder to translate to the screen, so that episode was eliminated. And Miss Blake didn’t have a motive in the book, so we added one, and the intrigue of the voodoo doll gave us a nice segue into the commercial break – which is another thing you constantly have to have in your mind when writing for ITV!
The biggest change was probably involving Poirot right from the start. As a late Christie, she clearly would rather not have had him in it at all, but obviously that was never going to happen!
When it came to ‘Hallowe’en Party’, we knew we’d have to be a bit more inventive. After the startling and arresting image of the murder victim in the apple bobbing tub, the rest of the story is very much late Christie – meandering and a bit repetitive. We wanted to extend the atmosphere and spookiness of Hallowe’en beyond the party itself into the rest of the episode (it gets a bit forgotten about in the book). So we added sequences like Rowena being stalked in the garden, Ariadne’s nightmare and Poirot’s fireside story denouement. Also, most of the characters are single women living alone, which in a dramatisation isn’t much help, as you need characters to interact with each other. It’s all very well being told that Rowena Drake is a dreadful and bossy woman, but far more effective to give her two children to be unpleasant to – then you can show it! And we rather liked the idea of the insular village populated principally by women. The only male residents we see are the elderly vicar, Edmund the mummy’s boy, and strange Leopold. So it’s no wonder all the women are transfixed and swooning at the arrival of the exotic Michael Garfield!
Equally, with a limited number of cast members, you want to maximise your cast of characters and try to make everyone as suspicious as possible. Consequently, we omitted Supt. Spence and his sister, and gave their function to Mrs Goodbody. That’s often the case with an adaptation – you find a way of combining several characters into one: so Mrs Goodbody gets to be a source of information and a suspect and thematic colour as the ‘witch’ at the party.
You also don’t have long to establish each character and give them a motive: you want to make them distinctive enough to give the actor something to get their teeth into and to make them memorable for an audience - particularly when they don't have very much screen time, hence Rev Cottrell being the penny-pinching vicar, Mrs Reynolds the moaning martyr and Frances the bored and boozy vixen!
You quickly realise how succinct you need to be with your story telling to fit everything into ninety minutes. A character or a scene really has to justify their place in telling the story in order to survive being cut.
7) Did the fact that The Big Four is one of the final episodes, essentially a build-up to Curtain, impact your script choices at all?
Impact upon! (That was Mark popping in to make a contribution, by the way.) Other than reuniting Hastings, Japp and Miss Lemon, and giving us the chance to show Poirot’s funeral, not especially. Given the more sombre tone of the later episodes, it had to feel thematically consistent with the rest of the series, which a completely faithful adaptation of the source material would have struggled to do.
8) I also run a Poirot chronology blog. What made you decide on 1939? Have you had a particular series chronology in mind in your three adaptations?
Our brief for all of the episodes has been to keep the period setting as the 1930s. Given that the novel is a departure for Poirot into the world of international intrigue, and as time is marching on for him, it made sense to move the story into the months preceding World War II. Other than that, it’s really the series producer and script editors who keep an eye on that sort of thing. Sometimes the art department ask for a decision on when exactly the script is set to produce a prop, for example a newspaper which requires that information.
9) You mentioned on Twitter that you would have included all of Poirot's friends at his funeral in The Big Four if the budget had been unlimited, and that Ariadne Oliver was in an early draft. Any other scenes or characters you would like to mention that didn’t survive the time/budget constraints, in The Big Four, Cat Among the Pigeons, and Hallowe'en Party?
Yes how wonderful would that have been! To see rows of characters paying their respects – Col. Race, Miss Bulstrode, Supt. Spence, Colin Lamb, Ariadne... It’s always annoying when soap opera characters die and their kids who apparently live in the next town don't bother to show up at the funeral! There was supposed to be a big floral wreath from Ariadne but I'm not sure whether that ended up being shot. And yes, in the first draft, it was Ariadne rather than Hastings who burst through the door at the end with the line “I thought you were dead!”
As for other casualties: there's nothing too significant I think. A romantic scene between Adam Goodman and Ann Shapland had to be dropped from 'Cat' because they ran out of time to shoot it. Mrs Reynolds had a husband in an early draft of 'Hallowe'en' who didn't survive to the final shooting script.
And our first pass at 'Four' experimented with a suggestion of a romantic attraction between Poirot and Mme Olivier (she also inherited some of the characteristics of Countess Rossakoff) – but maybe that would have been a sacrilege too far!
10) There are plenty of references to past episodes in The Big Four. Some fans have also pointed out that there are several nods to Sherlock. Were these deliberate?
Similarities to Sherlock? Well of course the original novel is directly indebted to so many aspects of Conan Doyle's work, which Christie herself actually acknowledges with the sly comment that Poirot makes about all great detectives having brothers who would be even more celebrated were it not for constitutional indolence! Life is littered with so many of these coincidences: even down to the fact that Mark of course plays Mycroft Holmes (the equivalent of Achille) in 'Sherlock'. The irony is that we've been pencilled to work on 'The Big Four' for years now – long before 'Sherlock' was even a twinkle in Mark and Steven Moffat's eyes! And yet Mark, by sheer coincidence, ended up working on 'The Big Four' and his new 'Sherlock' episode 'The Empty Hearse' at more or less the same time, when of course both stories deal with our heroes' apparent demises and subsequent resurrections.
Other nods? Some of them were deliberate: the letter to Miss Bulstrode for instance, the references to Mrs Japp, the lines about “bringing down the curtain”, and the themes of thwarted or frustrated egos - for both Darrell and Flossie – but also for Poirot of course! As Darrell rightly points out, there's absolutely no need for Poirot to stage these elaborate denouements, much less fake his own death – it's just that he adores a theatrical flourish. Both Mark and I have always been interested in that side of the character. Poirot in the books is a vain, pompous, insufferable little egomaniac, so it's fun to tweak everyone's expectations of him, to undercut the image of this twinkly, avuncular figure, and expose the less pleasant side of his personality!
11) Finally, was the new ending (The Big Four) inspired by the story of Suchet's grandparents or the location you filmed in?
Yes, I saw David's interviews about his grandparents, and I'm afraid I have to spoil the romance! We didn't know the story beforehand and it wasn't an inspiration for the film's climax. Nor did we write it with a specific location in mind - Hackney Empire was simply the choice of the production team.
Please do not reproduce without permission. Contact me via e-mail (poirotchronology@gmail.com) or on Twitter (@pchronology).
A big thanks to Tom, a fellow Poirot fan, for brilliant question ideas!
I've mentioned this project before on the blog, but now's the time to give it a full blog post. Back in October 2012 (just as production began on the final series), it was announced that Headline Publishing had acquired the rights in Poirot and Me, a book by written by David Suchet in collaboration with Geoffrey Wansell. It was to be published in autumn 2013.
At the time, Headline's Emma Tait stated: 'I am so excited to be publishing this book, which offers a unique opportunity in television publishing. Rather than an outsider's overview, it is the story of an iconic role told by the actor himself and it is fantastic to be working so closely with David and Geoffrey. I believe it will be a very special book and a wonderful way for David to bid farewell to his old friend Hercule Poirot.' David Suchet and Geoffrey Wansell released a joint statement: 'We are thrilled to be given this chance by Headline to bring his portrayal of Hercule Poirot to life for his millions of fans around the world. It's a wonderful – and rare – opportunity for a character actor to be able to explain his life and craft and exactly how he brought such a famous character to television audiences in more than eighty countries.'
Now Amazon.co.uk have made the book available for pre-order. The book will be released November 7, 2013. Se also Headline's page on the release. Reportedly, this is Suchet's personal story of how he researched and 'became' the iconic character (over 320 pages). The book is said to contain lots of his personal photos from the sets over the years. This should be a very interesting read and a perfect companion to the series!
P.S. Judging by this article from the Independent, the final four episodes are set to be shown in November, which means the book's release will coincide with the broadcast of Series Thirteen (and that makes sense, doesn't it?)
Whitehaven Mansions, Poirot’s Mayfair home, is lovingly recreated for the television series, both in the first couple of series and in later years. I have previously written about the similarities between Christie’s descriptions of the flat and the sets theyhave used for the series, and on the similarities between the two sets used for the flat. This time, I thought I might write something on how the production team decided to use 'Florin Court' in Charterhouse Square as the location for the exterior shots of the building. My main sources include Peter Haining’s excellent book on the series, the behind-the-scenes documentary Super Sleuths and an interview with the current production designer, Jeff Tessler, in Flat Living Magazine.
Florin Court
First some information on the fantastic building itself. The ten-storey block of flats was built in 1935-37 (almost the exact scope of the television series chronology) for Charterhouse Ltd by architects Guy Morgan & Partners and builders J. Gerrard & Sons. The building cost was apparently about £47,000 at the time. In 1988, the block was refurbished and modernised for Regalian Properties at a cost of about £2 million by architects Hildebrand & Glicker. That was when the building acquired its current name, Florin Court. More importantly, however, this was also exactly when the first series of Poirot started shooting. You can read more on the history of the building over at this website. A blog, thelondonphile, has some excellent photos of the current exterior and interior.
Finding Poirot’s home
In Peter Haining’s book, the first producer Brian Eastman explains what the process of finding the location of Poirot’s flat was like:
‘Actually there are lots of Thirties buildings in London (…) And once we decided to make modern-Thirties architecture a feature of the stories, we set out to compile a list of all the buildings from that era that were available within a striking distance of central London. Since then we’ve woven a lot of them into the films. We had two or three places that we could have uses as Poirot’s apartment – but there were several reasons that finally made us decide on Florin Court. In the books Poirot is described as living in ‘a Mayfair square’. But the interesting thing about Charterhouse is that nobody ever thinks it is in the city of London – Although you can believe it looks like Mayfair – which is what makes it unusual. We were also lucky that the property developers who had recently bought Florin Court had just completely refurbished it, putting the exterior back to its original pristine condition. So from the photographic point of view we had this lovely element of a clean, new building set between two nineteenth-century properties. So right from the opening shot we were establishing the point of the series’ (p. 42-43)
When the team discovered the newly refurbished and restored 30s building of Florin Court, they had found their location:
‘It was just what we wanted (…) And the developers agreed to let us film the building almost before they had let any of the apartments at all. So we got permission to close off the whole area for one weekend and set up our cameras. We shot continuously for a seventy-two-hour period – all through one day, then through the night, and all the next day. We knew it was important to do this because we would never be able to come back and find everything the same. Obviously once the apartments were let there would be different sorts of curtains hanging at the windows. Things like that would change all the time and it would be impossible for us the match up everything. So we filmed Florin Court from every angle and in every kind of light and darkness. We were not shooting material specifically for the first series, but to build up a library of general footage that we could weave into the stories at any time we wanted (p. 43)
In other words, the production team were extraordinarily lucky. At the exact same time as filming was to commence, they had found a building that was beautifully restored, empty of occupants and available for filming for an entire weekend, so that they could create a library of footage. In later years, they did come back to film more footage, but then mainly in front of the entrance on the ground floor, because it was almost impossible to get the period look once the flats were occupied. In fact, the shots they saved up during that one weekend in 1988 were used right up to Series Six (1995-1996). Some more footage was shot for the return of the series in 1999 (e.g. the dialogue between Japp and Poirot in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), and then some new shots were taken in 2005 (by the new production team, to go with the new flat), but essentially the same shots were used throughout the earlier episodes.
The current production designer, Jeff Tessler (who designed Poirot’s current flat), praises the decision to go for Florin Court. In an interview with Flat Living Magazine, he explained:
‘There are very few blocks in London that would provide the Art Deco image that was required. Florin Court has an excellent central location, and, other than changing the name of the building to Whitehaven Mansions, not much needed to be done’ (Flat Living Magazine)
Tessler also explains what the process of filming is like, now that the flats are occupied:
‘We always do all we can to minimise disruption. Even a short scene can take many hours, so we have to ensure that people do not wait more than a few minutes to enter or exit the building. The biggest difficulty we have is closing off the street. Most councils have a Film Commission Office, and we get permission from them. It still takes a lot of organisation once permission has been granted. All parked cars need removing, and other anachronisms such as yellow lines and parking bays need disguising (...) We try to get a large number of different shots when we do have access to the site. We will shoot Poirot arriving and leaving a number of times, and in a variety of vehicles. We also have a large number of exterior shots of Florin Court on file. With all of these available it might not be necessary to film there for two or three years' (Flat Living Magazine)
The team returned for the final and current series of Poirot, and the most recent episode, Elephants Can Remember, has some very nice location shots at Florin Court – the most exposure the building has had since that weekend in 1988. Both the screen caps that accompany this post are from that episode. Hopefully we are in for a few more glimpses in the episodes to come.
By coincidence, I stumbled over the websites of two members of the Poirot production crew: Ian Tomlinson (Art Department Assistant / Graphics Designer) and Andrew Lavin (Standby Art Director). Tomlinson's website, www.tomlinson-design.com, had a photo of Tomlinson's model for Poirot's flat (see below, photo linked to his website, no copyright infringement intended).
That is probably the most accurate floor plan we will ever get of the flat (see previous blog posts for other suggestions).
Tomlinson also seems to have done some of the props for the series. See, for instance, the passport of Count and Countess Andreyni from Murder on the Orient Express (below). I'm just delighted by the attention to detail they have on these adaptations, even down to birth dates of characters in a passport. Really!
Andrew Lavin's website has changed since I first visited it, so he has (sadly) deleted some of the many photos that were there to begin with. I very much regret I didn't save them. But I still have some, and there are still loads on his website (see below for a selection, photos linked to his website, no copyright infringement intended).
Here are two photos from Poirot's flat, one from Lavin's website (bottom) and one from the Agatha Christie facebook page (top).
To limit myself a bit, I will just draw your attention to two more photos from Lavin's website (see above). The first is from Appointment with Death, the hotel bar. I didn't really notice that this was a set when I first watched it, so that just proves that they did a good job! As to the second one, from Third Girl, I am just amazed at the detail of the food (as I hardly noticed it on screen).
Finally, two tiny updates from the filming of The Big Four that has just finished. One photo is of Suchet's chair on set, the other is from Miss Lemon's apartment, apparently (!). Both photos are from the AC facebook page. I'm thrilled that they have actually given Miss Lemon her own flat, even if it is probably just that corner with the telephone. I imagine we will see a scene where Poirot asks her to come back over the phone (hooray!).
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There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes material on the series over the years, but sadly, most of it is difficult (if not impossible) to get hold of. I will try to go through the complete behind-the-scenes features (or, at least, as complete a list as I have been able to make). In addition to the documentaries, interviews and Agatha Christie features listed below, there are some rumours circulating that a behind-the-scenes feature was made in the early 90s, though I somehow find this quite unlikely, as they didn't have the DVD/BluRay market we have these days, so why should they make "extras", unless it was to be used for a television broadcast? The interviews/programmes I've tracked down from the early 90s are all television broadcasts, not DVD extras.
1) Agatha Christie: Crime Does Pay (1990)
This seems to be the earliest documentary in which David Suchet comments on his character. It also features a detailed discussion of Christie's literature and her two main detectives. It seems to have been made in conjunction with the 100th jubilee (centenary) of Christie's birth. The documentary also features the only "meeting" between Miss Marple and Poirot (a.k.a. Hickson and Suchet). As of now (December 2012), most of it seems to be availale on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKPXEOIWNI).
2) Agatha Christie: Een Mysterie (
A documentary on Agatha Christie's life, including an interview with David Suchet on the set of The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Narrated by Joan Hickson! Currently available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqnrNSxJ2QM).
3) The Trouble With Agatha Christie (1991)
An oh-so-typical 90s show on Christie's characters, featuring interviews with a lot of experts as well as actors such as Angela Lansbury, Peter Ustinov - and of course David Suchet. Also available (2012) on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMh2tyjhHII).
4) The Great Detectives: Hercule Poirot and the disappearing novelist (1999)
This seems to have been lost. At least, I've never managed to track it down anywhere online. I've found to captions: 'Nigel Williams investigates the 10-day disappearance of Agatha Christie, an incident which remains a mystery to this day. With the help of David Suchet and a hotel murder weekend team, he hopes to unlock the secrets of Christie's enigmatic life.' AND 'Nigel Williams profiles Agatha Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot, explains the enduring appeal of the eccentric Belgian and examines the author's sensational ten-day disappearance'. Judging from these, the documentary seems to centre on Agatha Christie's life more generally rather than the TV series specifically.
5) Behind the Scenes Featurettes from Series Nine (2003-2004)
Probably intended for DVD release, I think these are included in the "complete collections" regularly released by ITV, as well as some separate DVD releases of Series Nine, but I have never managed to lay my hands on them. Apparently they include an interview with producer Margaret Mitchell (Five Little Pigs), an interview with Mitchell and David Suchet (Sad Cypress) and an on-location featurette (The Hollow). The final featurette, from Death on the Nile, I have managed to get hold of. This was available on YouTube for a while, but I can't seem to find it anymore.
5) The Agatha Christie Code (2005)
This documentary apparently features an interview with David Suchet, supposedly on Poirot, but I haven't been able to find it online. I saw some clips from it a few years back, and it didn't seem to feature the series to a very great extent...
6) Behind the Scenes on Series Ten (2006)
This documentary follows the production of the entire tenth series, from The Mystery of the Blue Train, via After the Funeral and Cards on the Table to Taken at the Flood. It includes interviews with several of the main actors and actresses. I don't think it's available online at the moment (apart from in a version dubbed into Russian), but it will probably be included in the final box set, and it is frequently aired on ITV3.
7) Poirot & Me (mini-documentary series, 2006)
This is the brilliant mini-documentary series, which consists of five minute interviews with David Suchet. All are currently available on YouTube, thanks to the wonderful Sanna from the David Suchet Fansite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKz8-jwj50U).
They are titled:
- Part One: How It All Began
- Part Two: My Most Intriguing Mystery
- Part Three: My Most Humorous Episode
- Part Four: My Favourite Male Star
- Part Five: My All-Time Favourite
- Part Six: My Loneliness as Poirot
- Part Seven: My Favourite Leading Lady
- Part Eight: Poirot Almost Gets It Wrong
- Part Nine: My Most Challenging Location
An episode called "Poirot's Closest Call" was apparently also supposed to have aired, but I have never managed to track that one down. Judging by the TV guides for that particular weekend, it seems to have featured 'The Mystery of the Spanish Chest' (in which Poirot is almost stabbed by a duelling sword).
8) Super Sleuths: Agatha Christie's Poirot (2007)
2006 was certainly a wonderful year for behind-the-scenes material! This documentary is probably the best and features interviews with everyone from the first producers, script writers, main cast (including Suchet, Fraser, Moran AND Jackson!) and experts. It is part of a major series profiling the most famous ITV detective series. Available on YouTube (2012), again thanks to Sanna (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRiXmYg9yY), and I think it's also available on some US DVD releases.
9) Top of the Cops (2009)
I haven't been able to locate this online. But judging from information on various websites, the premise seems to have been for the viewers to choose their favourite detective (aka cop). What Poirot is doing in a COP competition, I have no idea... Anyway, it only seems to have featured some clips from the show and some archive footage from an interview with Suchet.
9) David Suchet on the Orient Express (2009)
An absolutely delightful documentary, with David Suchet taking on the journey of the Orient Express. He details the history of the train, as well as some stuff on Christie's book and his portrayal of her character. An extra on the US/UK DVD releases of Series Twelve. Currently available online thanks to Sanna (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0KhaKurWQA). Also available in a 'Masterpiece Special' version, I think.
10) The Making of Murder on the Orient Express (2010)
A rather nice featurette behind-the-scenes of the production. Interviews with main cast members, director and production crew. Currently available on YouTube.
11) The People's Detective: Poirot/Holmes (2010)
This is a rather interesting 'documentary' which was part of a series outlining the main crime dramas on ITV and encouraging the audience to vote for their favourite detective. The episode features interviews with Agatha Christie's grandson, Pauline Moran, Anthony Horowitz and David Suchet, among others. Not available online at the moment.
12) The A to Z of Crime: M to P (2011)
A series outlining words from crime drama series (e.g. murder, hanging, Marple, Poirot). Yes, I know. They seem to be running out of ideas! I watched this myself when it was aired, and from what I can remember Suchet only features in a tiny archive interview. Not available online.
13) Crime Connections (2012)
A series outlining the connections between crime dramas (e.g. Shaun Evans appears in 'Whitechapel' and stars in 'Endeavour' (yup, I told you, they're running out of clever ideas)). The series apparently profiles Agatha Christie's Poirot. Not available online- or at least I haven't been able to find it.
14) Perspectives: The Mystery of Agatha Christie (2013)
UPDATE MAY 2013: "Longish", a commenter, reminded me that the Agatha Christie documentary I mention below has now aired and is available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgP_UfPhOVs). There's a brief clip from Suchet's trailer on the set of Curtain, but apart from that this fascinating documentary focuses on Agatha Christie. For most fans, this is an absolute must-see, and Suchet is excellent.
UPDATE NOVEMBER 2013:
15) Interview with David Suchet (2013)
There's a short interview included on the complete DVD box set that was released by ITV. He details the process of becoming Poirot. A decent interview.
16) Being Poirot (2013)
This documentary was broadcast by ITV directly after Curtain. It is a brilliant account of Suchet's commitment to the character. Available on YouTube.
In addition to these, there's the behind-the-scenes book by Peter Haining, Agatha Christie's Poirot: A Celebration of the Great Detective (1995) which should be available through Amazon or Ebay. As of late 2013, there's also David Suchet's absolutely brilliant autobiography, Poirot and Me (2013), which I suggest is an absolute must-have for any Poirot fan.
Agatha Christie's Poirot has remained synonymous with a very distinctive theme tune, composed by Christopher Gunning, and the opening titles designed by Pat Gavin. Moreover, music is a vital element of the series in most people's eyes. I will briefly try to outline the three composers who have worked on the series over the years: Christopher Gunning (1989-2004), Stephen McKeon (2005-2008) and Christian Henson (2009-2013). Their names are linked to their respective web sites.
[EDIT FEBRUARY 2013: This post has been significantly expanded and altered due to the news of Christopher Gunning's release of a new Poirot soundtrack album - see separate post]
Christopher Gunning's music is available on a CD released in 1992. This recording has been almost impossible to get hold of over the years (and it still is!). But it does appear from time to time on places like YouTube. See below for the track list:
Hercule Poirot - The Belgian Detective (2:30)
One-two, Buckle-my-shoe (2:00)
The Double Clue (5:05)
The A-B-C- Murders (4:35)
Grey Cells (4:21)
War (2:30)
A Country Retreat (4:52)
Death of Mrs. Inglethorpe (2:29)
The Height of Fashion (2:08)
How Does Your Garden Grow (9:05)
Death in the Clouds (3:55)
To the Lakes (2:19)
The Victory Ball (4:55)
The Plymouth Express (9:29)
Two of these are available on YouTube at the moment: The Plymouth Express and The Belgian Detective. As of 2013, a new album has been released, featuring all the above tracks (apart from 'The Plymouth Express' and 'Death in the Clouds'), in addition to three previously unreleased tracks. See separate post.
The series changed tone quite drastically with Stephen McKeon. Some of his tracks are available on his web site. Below are some comments from a blog I'll most probably come back to in a later post.
"In only his second Poirot film, composer Stephen McKeon notably melds Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite No. 2 with notable Philip Glass-like highlights to create a most enchanting score that adds immeasurably to the proceedings." (Douglas Payne, sound insights blog, on the score for Cards on the Table (2006))
"Stephen McKeon’s score, a surprisingly successful mix of Philip Glass and John Williams, is remarkably effective in achieving these ends, though the curious use of the melodica, a keyboard instrument, now suggests the music of the Harry Potter films a bit more than is appropriate." (Douglas Payne, sound insights blog, on the score for Mrs. McGinty's Dead (2007))
Personally, having listened to his scores both on his website and in the films, I prefer the ones that are somewhat more sentimental in flavour, like the end music to The Mystery of the Blue Train, to the somewhat dark and moody ones that seem to scream MURDER in capital letters. However, in light of the stories he scored, I think the music works well within the context of the films.
I must admit, however, that Christian Henson is much more to my liking. He was asked to do the most recent series (2009-2010) and returned for the final series, too (2013). It seems a conscious decision - whether by him or the production team - to link his scores more closely to Christopher Gunning's, especially in the sense that several elements of the theme tune are retained throughout the scores of his episodes. Not that McKeon didn't include it, but Henson seems to be doing it more frequently. Personally, I find the music for Murder on the Orient Express some of the absolute best of the entire series.
In a blog post, Henson describes the process of scoring the episodes. Interesting if you like soundtracks/composing. He mentions his 'brief' from the producers, who instructed him to "offer hints of the period setting, coupled with the characterful nature of Hercule, and the cinematic ambitions of ITV’s flagship drama brand". Moreover, he explains that he thought the clarinet to be "very much the instrument I hoped to use to characterise Hercule". I find this rather amusing, because actor David Suchet has been playing the clarinet in his leisure time for several years!
Four of Henson's tracks are available on YouTube (at the time of writing):
1. Love Theme (from 'The Clocks')
2. Overture (from 'Three Act Tragedy')
3. Secret Garden (from 'Halloween Party')
4. Redemption (from 'Murder on the Orient Express')
Finally, there are some composers of additional material for the series, including Fiachra Trench (who I believe stepped in for much of Series Two because Gunning was unavailable at the time.
EDIT: this seems to be confirmed on Gunning's website in 2013, where his contributions for the series are detailed as series 1 & series 3-9), Neil Richardson (who composed additional music heard/seen on screen, e.g. 'I've Forgotten You' from 'Yellow Iris') and Samuel Karl Bohn (who composed additional music for Series Twelve, most notably the 'new' Poirot theme in Hallowe'en Party).
UPDATE FEBRUARY 2013:
Since Christopher Gunning has just announced the release of a new 'Poirot' album (see this blog post), I thought I might add a few more words on this post. Recently, I discovered that he has commented on the Amazon page of the previous album, responding to criticism that he has not included all the different variants of the theme:
"Every Poirot film for which I composed the music had its own sub-theme. Therefore it was natural to include these on the CD. Each track should remind you of a particular story".
"You could not POSSIBLY have a whole album of the Poirot tune itself - it would be a crushing bore. However, if you listen carefully, you will discover references to the theme (overt or less so) in almost every track".
Responding to criticism that so much of the later scores had been left out on the original release, he explains:
"The CD was made relatively early on in the series. The music was thus nearly all taken from series 1 - thus, I hadn't composed "Murder on the Links," "The Incredible Theft," or "The Underdog" yet, or several other films which I'd like to include in any future CD. There would be an incredible array of stuff to draw on!"
On the subject of recording and releasing another CD (this was written before the recent news):
"I would love to record another Poirot CD, and, who knows, it may happen. The problem is that soundtrack albums seldom sell more than 1000 copies or so, and are extremely expensive to produce. It's difficult to persuade record companies to stump up the cash for something that may not cover the initial outlay, for obvious reasons."
With the new release this month, it seems this issue has been solved. Personally, I would have liked some of the scores he did for the later films to be included as well, like the ones he mentions in the comment above. However, I am more than delighted to see the old album re-released with some undoubtedly great additional tracks.
On a different note, he explains the absence of a full version of the theme in his final scores (the 2003-2004 series):
"I was instructed by the production team 1) not to quote from the Poirot theme at all, and 2) not to use the alto saxophone. You will notice that in all productions since then any references to the theme are extremely obtuse and few and far between. I think it was silly on the part of the producers."
I'm not too sure if this is actually entirely true. Obviously, the theme is missing from the episodes, but it is definitely in the end credits of Five Little Pigs, so it cannot have been forbidden to use it. As to the alto saxophone, much as I love it, I'm not sure if it is entirely neccessary to create the 'Poirot' mood. The variations on the theme in the later series, particularly in the shape of the clarinet in Henson's Three Act Tragedy overture, proves that it can easily be created in different ways too.
More generally, I am divided on the issue of Gunning's theme and its presence in later episodes. I certainly miss the theme tune, and I love Gunning's scores, but I do symphatize with the view that a full theme at the beginning of each episode would create the mood of a TV series (yes, I know it is a TV series, but the producers seemed keen to portray the adaptations as 'television films', a stand that I respect). Moreover, the mood of most of the recent episodes has been so dark that the theme would seem somewhat out of place.
On the other hand, what Gunning did with the theme in his final series proved that it would not seem too much out of place if adjusted to the mood of each episode. Although I am not an expert on music, I found the way he made the theme blend with Erik Satie's Gnossienne at the end of Five Little Pigs absolutely magnificent. By using the theme in ways that only hint at it, you keep the essence of both the character and the series, while adhering to the producers' need to portray the episodes as 'films'. In other words, although I find the decision to abandon the theme altogether (if that decision was ever made) ridiculous, I think its semi-inclusion in later episodes works quite well, in light of the producers' preferences. Also, in defence of the producers, they seem to have reversed the decision quite early on, as hints of the theme tune have been present in adaptations in series 10, 11 and 12.
In any case, I very much hope that the theme tune features prominently in some way in the final episode, Curtain. Anything else would be a crime. It would probably have to be darkened quite significantly, but it should work. Also, please, please, please, use it in The Big Four as the 'big four' of Poirot, Hastings, Japp and Lemon are reunited. That would be a wish come true (and such a wonderful way of acknowledging the series' past!)
UPDATE MAY 2013:
Judging by the press pack for Elephants Can Remember, the first episode of the final series, Christian Henson is back for the final five episodes! As I've said before, Henson is the best they could have hoped for (after Gunning, of course!). I'm sure he'll come up with some very fitting music for the final adaptations.
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