‘This, Hastings, will be my last case. It will be, too, my most interesting case. – and my most interesting criminal.’
Today marks an historic day for television and the end of an era – it is Hercule Poirot’s swansong in the ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Curtain.
Written in the 1940s during World War II, Curtain was locked in a vault and was not to see the light of day for over 30 years. After the publication of Elephants Can Remember and Postern of Fate, Christie became aware that she would no longer be able to continue writing. And so, in 1975 upon her authorization Curtain was removed from the bank vault and published by Collins Crime Club in September that year. It was the last novel that Christie would see published in her lifetime, as she was to die the following January.
Curtain sees Poirot and his old friend Hastings reunited for the first time since Dumb Witness, in the very house in which they first met. Both bear the ravages of time, Hastings is widowed and Poirot is wheelchair bound through suffering from arthritis. However, Poirot’s famous little grey cells are yet to desert him, and he declares that one of the guests staying at Styles is a five-time murderer.
After 25 years of playing the part of Poirot, David Suchet has said goodbye to the character we all know and love – and I suggest you prepare to also, it may be a teary one (it will be for me, anyway!)
Curtain airs this Wednesday, 8pm on ITV and is followed at 10:35pm by Being Poirot, in which David investigates the enduring appeal of the detective and reveals what it has been like to play the world-famous sleuth.
Goodbye, cher ami…
– Natasha, HarperFiction
