50 Fun Facts About Hercule Poirot

What nationality is Hercule Poirot?

People constantly mistake him for a Frenchman, a slight he corrects with weary regularity.

What phrase does Poirot use for the brainpower he relies on to solve cases?

The phrase appears from his very first novel, alongside his other motto, "order and method".

In which novel did Poirot make his first appearance?

Christie wrote it in 1916, mostly on Dartmoor, and it was published in the United States in 1920.

How many novels does Poirot appear in?

Add two plays and 51 short stories and you have the whole canon, published between 1920 and 1975.

What is the title of the novel in which Poirot dies?

Christie wrote it during the Blitz and locked it in a bank vault; it was published a few months before her death in 1976.

Which American newspaper ran a front-page obituary for Poirot when his final case was published in 1975?

He remains the only fictional character to have received that honour.

Which actor played Poirot in the ITV series that ran from 1989 to 2013?

He eventually filmed every major Poirot work Christie wrote, ending with Curtain in November 2013.

Which director cast himself as Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (2017)?

His third outing, A Haunting in Venice, was based on the novel Hallowe'en Party.

What is the name of Poirot's loyal friend and frequent narrator, a former British Army officer?

He is Poirot's Watson, though he appears in only eight of the novels and vanishes from the series between 1937 and 1975.

Which Scotland Yard inspector keeps turning up in Poirot's investigations?

The TV series greatly expanded his role; in the books he disappears entirely for the last 28 years of Poirot's career.

What is the name of Poirot's fearsomely efficient secretary?

Poirot called her "unbelievably ugly and incredibly efficient"; she dreams of creating the perfect filing system.

Which crime novelist, a self-caricature of Christie herself, is a recurring Poirot ally?

She hates alcohol and public appearances, adores apples, and is not fond of her own Finnish detective, Sven Hjerson.

What shape does Hastings famously compare Poirot's head to?

The first description also notes he stood barely five feet four inches and carried himself with great dignity.

What is Poirot's most treasured item of facial hair?

Austin Trevor, the first screen Poirot in 1931, played the part without one.

What footwear is a frequent source of misery for the fastidious Poirot when it gets damaged?

His whole appearance, fashionable early on, later falls hopelessly out of date.

What exact bank balance does the finance-conscious Poirot prefer to keep?

David Suchet said of the character, "there's no question he's obsessive-compulsive".

What is the address of Poirot's London flat, chosen for its strict geometry?

Flat 203 at number 56B was, Hastings tells us, "the newest type of service flat".

Which two composers is Poirot said to be especially fond of?

The detail comes from Curtain and The Clocks; his taste, like his tailoring, is classical.

In The Big Four, Poirot pretends to have an identical twin brother. What is the twin's name?

It is one of several fictions he spins to gain information, along with an invalid mother and a non-existent nephew.

By what year was Poirot active in the Brussels police force?

He later claimed to have been Chief of Police of Brussels until the Great War forced him to England.

Which short story reveals what Poirot considers his only true failure?

The 1893 Belgian case is the one he blames on his own fault; other unsolved cases he puts down to arriving too late.

To which South American country do Hastings and his wife Dulcie emigrate?

Hastings met Dulcie Duveen, a music hall performer half his age, while investigating The Murder on the Links.

Which glamorous jewel thief, supposedly a Russian aristocrat, did a smitten Poirot let escape?

Even Poirot admitted she gave wildly varying accounts of her early life.

According to Poirot, why is speaking broken English an "enormous asset"?

He admits he can speak idiomatic English perfectly and also boasts on purpose, all to put people off their guard.

What were Poirot's last recorded words, spoken to Hastings?

He was buried at Styles, the house where he had lived when he first arrived in England.

In his final case, Poirot fakes his need for what, to seem more infirm than he is?

He also confesses to Hastings that he has taken to wearing a wig and a false moustache.

In which 1927 novel does Poirot fake his own death and funeral to ambush a criminal gang?

So Hastings attended his best friend's funeral twice: once staged, once for real in Curtain.

How many people did Poirot conclude had each stabbed the victim on the Orient Express?

He saw poetic justice in the number matching a jury, and produced an alternative story about an unknown passenger for the police.

Under what title did Christie's Orient Express novel first appear in the United States?

The change avoided confusion with Graham Greene's Stamboul Train, sold in America as Orient Express.

What stops the Orient Express in the novel, trapping the murderer on board?

The train is stuck between Vinkovci and Brod, in what is now northeastern Croatia.

What is the name of the murder victim aboard the Orient Express?

Poirot had refused to protect him with the words "I do not like your face."

Poirot's friend Monsieur Bouc, who gets him an Orient Express berth, is a director of what?

The real company operated the sleeping cars on the Orient Express.

In which city do the opening chapters of Murder on the Orient Express mainly take place?

Poirot arrives at the Tokatlian Hotel and receives a telegram summoning him back to London.

Which Poirot novel was voted the best crime novel ever by the Crime Writers' Association in 2013?

Its twist ending was so controversial that critic Edmund Wilson titled an essay "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?"

Which short story was Poirot's first case as a post-war private detective?

After the First World War he set up as a private detective and began taking civilian cases.

Which poison kills Emily Inglethorp in Poirot's first novel?

Christie's wartime work in a hospital dispensary gave her the expert knowledge of poisons that runs through her books.

Which critic called Five Little Pigs "the best Christie of all"?

In it Poirot investigates a murder committed sixteen years earlier by comparing five accounts of the day.

Which author was commissioned by the Christie estate to write new Poirot novels from 2014?

The first, The Monogram Murders, sits chronologically between The Mystery of the Blue Train and Peril at End House.

Who was the first actor ever to play Poirot, on the West End stage in 1928?

The play, Alibi, was adapted from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and reached Broadway as The Fatal Alibi.

Which actor is the only one to earn an Academy Award nomination for playing Poirot?

The nomination was for the 1974 film of Murder on the Orient Express; he did not win.

How many times did Peter Ustinov play Poirot, starting with Death on the Nile in 1978?

When Christie's daughter objected that he was nothing like Poirot, Ustinov replied, "He is now!"

The future ITV Poirot played which character in the 1985 TV film Thirteen at Dinner?

Suchet considers it "possibly the worst performance" of his career.

Which actor played Poirot in the 2018 BBC adaptation of The ABC Murders?

Alfred Molina had taken the role in a 2001 TV Murder on the Orient Express, and Hugh Laurie played Poirot as a joke in Spice World.

How many episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot were made across its 13 series?

By the finale every major Christie work featuring the detective had been adapted.

Who played Captain Hastings in the ITV series Agatha Christie's Poirot?

Pauline Moran was Miss Lemon and Philip Jackson played Inspector Japp.

In which year were most of the early ITV Poirot episodes deliberately set?

References to events like the Jarrow March were slipped in to anchor the chronology.

Which Sherlock Holmes tradition did Christie admit she was still writing in when she created Poirot?

She said Inspector Japp was her "Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective".

Which village in Belgium's Hainaut province claims to be Poirot's birthplace?

Christie herself hinted only at a family villa in the Ardennes near Spa.

How had Christie come to feel about Poirot by 1960?

She refused to kill him off anyway, saying it was her duty to produce what the public liked.

Who was the first actor to play Poirot on screen, in the 1931 British film Alibi?

Trevor said he was probably cast simply because he could do a French accent, and he played the role twice more.