List of Agatha Christie's Poirot episodes
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The following is a list of episodes for the British crime drama Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot, which aired on ITV from 8 January 1989-13 November 2013. Overall, 70 episodes were made over 13 series. The series is available for free on the Internet Archive,[1]
Episodes run for either approximately 50 minutes or 90–100 minutes, the latter of which is the format of all episodes from series 6 onwards. The shorter episodes are based on Christie's short stories featuring Poirot, many published in the 1920s, and are considerably embellished from their original form. The longer episodes are based on Christie's 33 Poirot novels and one short story collection (The Labours of Hercules). While Christie's novels are set contemporaneously with the time of writing (between the 1920s and 1970s), 1936 was chosen as the year in which to place the majority of Poirot episodes; references to events such as the Jarrow March were included to strengthen this chronology.[2] With some exceptions, the series as a whole is set in roughly chronological order between 1935 and 1939, just prior to the WWII.[fn 1]
The “Titles” below link to Wikipedia articles describing the original print publications on which the programs were based, not to articles about the episodes.
All episodes from series 1–5 are 50 minutes long, except where marked as "feature-length".
All episodes are feature-length from this point onwards.
A number of Hercule Poirot stories were not directly adapted, although most were re-worked by Christie into later stories and filmed in these iterations. These are:
| Original Story Title | Adaptation Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Lemesurier Inheritance (1923) | None | The episode "The Labours of Hercules" uses the surname "Lemesurier" from the original story, but otherwise has nothing in common with the story. |
| The Market Basing Mystery (1923) | "Murder in the Mews" | Re-worked by Christie |
| The Submarine Plans (1923) | "The Incredible Theft" | Re-worked by Christie |
| Christmas Adventure (1923) | "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" | Re-worked by Christie |
| The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest (1932) | "The Mystery of the Spanish Chest" | Re-worked by Christie |
| The Second Gong (1932) | "Dead Man's Mirror" | Re-worked by Christie |
| The Incident of the Dog's Ball (written c.1933, posthumously published) | "Dumb Witness" | Re-worked by Christie |
| The Capture of Cerberus (written c.1939, posthumously published) | None | Unrelated to the better known final case of the same title in The Labours of Hercules. Intended as the last of The Labours of Hercules, Christie re-wrote the entire story due to its political content, retaining only the title. |
| The Nemean Lion (1947) | "The Labours of Hercules" | Not directly adapted as part of the episode's combined narrative. |
| The Augean Stables (1947) | ||
| Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly (written 1954, posthumously published) | "Dead Man's Folly" | Re-worked by Christie |
| Black Coffee (play) | None | In 2012, Suchet performed a rehearsed reading of Black Coffee, produced and presented by The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, in aid of Chichester Festival Theatre's restoration fund. |
- ^ Numerous references in early episodes place the series primarily in 1935, progressing to 1936 by series four. Most references remain to 1936, moving slowly forward to 1937 by series eleven and 1938 by Murder on the Orient Express. The Big Four is set explicitly in early 1939. The most notable exceptions to this chronology are The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which narrates Poirot's first case in 1917, and Curtain: Poirot's Last Case, which is set primarily in 1949. The Chocolate Box shows Poirot in the early 1900s, though the framing narrative remains consistent with the series' usual timeframe.
- ^ Peril at End House was first broadcast as a two-part episode, both parts of which aired back-to-back. Subsequent showings and DVD releases present it as a single feature-length episode (with the exception of the Blu-Ray release which kept the original airing form).
- ^ DVD releases invert the order of series eight, placing Evil Under the Sun after Murder in Mesopotamia, and mislabeling the former episode's airdate as "15 December 2002" (which was the airdate for France), and the latter's airdate as "8 July 2001" (which was the U.S. airdate that aired first along with France's).
- ^ Aired on 8 July 2001 in France and US.
- ^ Aired on 11 December 2005 in France and US.
- ^ DVD releases invert the order of Cards on the Table and After the Funeral.
- ^ Aired on 11 December 2005 in France.
- ^ Aired on 11 December 2005 in France.
- ^ Aired on 1 September 2008 in Sweden.
- ^ Aired on 8 September 2008 in Sweden.
- ^ Aired on 15 September 2008 in Sweden.
- ^ Aired on 22 September 2008 in Sweden, and released on DVD in the UK on 6 October 2008.
- ^ Aired on 1 January 2010 in Norway.
- ^ Aired on 26 May 2010 in Sweden.
- ^ Murder on the Orient Express was intended as the first episode of series twelve, but was held back until Christmas 2010 as a consequence of Appointment with Death's broadcast the previous year. All DVD releases restore the intended episode order.
- ^ Aired on 11 July 2010 in US.
- ^ The Clocks was intended to be placed before Hallowe'en Party, but in the UK ITV did not initially schedule its broadcast in favour of the latter episode and Murder on the Orient Express. All DVD releases restore the intended episode order.
- ^ Aired on 30 December 2009 in Norway, and released on DVD in January 2011.
- ^ Aired on 4 October 2013 in Poland.
- ^ Aired on 1 November 2013 in Poland.
- ^ "Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine". archive.org. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989–)". Screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2009.