In chapter 12 of "Poirot and Me" Suchet reveals being alerted by a friend to newspaper reports that no more episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot were going to be made. The way it was handled, rather than the decision itself, was, he writes, hurtful.
Suchet went on to appear in the Hollywood blockbuster Executive Decision, as an Arab terrorist, before returning to the theatre to appear in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. This was followed by a three-part TV drama, Seesaw, and then another Hollywood movie, a remake of Dial M for Murder, which was titled A Perfect Murder.
Another theatre production, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, followed, before rumours began to circulate that Poirot might be returning...
In a way it seems strange now, looking back on that four-year absence of Poirot. I can think of all the things that happened in my life during that period, as can we all. On the TV detective front, however, perhaps the most significant thing for me during that period was the arrival of Midsomer Murders. This incredibly enduring production began with a pilot episode on March 23rd, 1997 (although it would be another year before a series of four episodes ran, between March and May of 1998). Over the years Midsomer Murders has become noted for its tongue-in-cheek style and its high body count. But what I remember finding appealing at the beginning was the comparatively 'normal' character of DCI Tom Barnaby (happily married, and with a daughter). The 1990s had seen the 100-minute crime/detective genre - pioneered, in many ways, by Inspector Morse - grow in popularity. But the trend seemed to be for detectives who were dysfunctional or had troubled lives in some way (Touch of Frost would be a good example; and Morse himself had his quirks, of course). Poirot was different, and set in a very different era. Midsomer Murders, although contemporary in time, harked back, in some ways, to a bygone age of murder in classic, idylic English village settings.
