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[ up-tempo music plays ]

POIROT: The theft of the Heart of Fire.

The murder of Mme. Ruth Kettering.

The attempted murder of Mlle. Katherine Grey.

All of this is the work of an intelligence formidable.

And it moves amongst us now.

NARRATOR: Someone once said

it's impossible to name a famous Belgian.

Whoever said that hadn't done their detective work.

M. Poirot.

I'm so glad you're here.

NARRATOR: Hercule Poirot is without doubt

one of the best-known detectives in literature,

and he is very definitely Belgian.

How exciting. You're most frightfully famous.

NARRATOR: He's also the only fictional character

ever to be honored with an obituary

on the front page of The New York Times.

RUTH: Oh, my God. That's him.

NARRATOR: Now, that's famous.

I'm really going to faint. [Laughs]

My daughter, you see, is a tremendous fan of yours.

Listen, Poirot.

You will take the case on, won't you?

NARRATOR: David Suchet has completed

four all-new Poirot mysteries.

Oui monsieur. I will take the case.

NARRATOR: We've got exclusive behind-the-scenes access

to the set and on location.

[French accent] Oh, hello. Nice to see you.

NARRATOR: We'll reveal how David is transformed

into Agatha Christie's eccentric private eye.

Voilà.

NARRATOR: We'll meet the galaxy of stars

lined up for Poirot's latest cases.

Am I happy?

I'm always happy.

NARRATOR: And we'll discover the secrets of the set,

why things sometimes go with a bang.

[Car backfires]

That's why we always have one too many.

Because one always breaks down.

C'est scandaleux.

NARRATOR: For the past 16 years, Poirot has been a regular on ITV

courtesy of the brilliant British actor David Suchet.

This is so thrilling, I can hardly breathe.

I adore him.

And he's really irritating.

[Laughs]

He drives me crazy.

NARRATOR: Since he first took the role,

David has filmed a remarkable 53 Poirot stories,

making the character his own.

Monsieur, they are all lying, the whole family.

I was frightened to take over the mantle

of this extraordinary character.

And what I did was I thought,

'Well, rather than work out how I'm going to do it,

let me find out who this man is

from Agatha Christie's perspective."

I then read as many of the books as I could, making a dossier.

And, of course, Agatha Christie had it all in there --

the whole character, all his eccentricities.

And I noted them.

I wanted to be the character that Agatha Christie wrote.

Order and method.

These are the elements of Poirot.

NARRATOR: Now Suchet's Poirot is a huge international success.

Over 80 countries buy the films,

making it one of British television's

most successful exports.

Not surprisingly, it has attracted

and continues to attract some of our finest actors.

I can't see the point.

Poirot in the hands of David and the team has become,

like Agatha Christie, a national treasure.

Agatha Christie is such a great icon.

I think what attracts actors to it

is because they're all good characters.

Good stories and lots of whodunits, lots of red herrings.

Just the glamour and the clothes.

And, you know, I think it's absolutely gorgeous.

I do not think that we shall be bored.

NARRATOR: Everyone involved with the productions

acknowledges one thing --

David Suchet's fanatical attention to detail.

David Suchet is arguably the best Poirot

that has played the part.

Brilliantly funny and seriously serious.

[Woman screams]

The detail he's gone into in every aspect,

from his behavior, his speech.

He's a fantastic match for the character of Poirot.

I think he's completely claimed it.

PHILLIPS: David gave me four handwritten pages of notes

about the character.

Meticulous things like, you know' "Never drinks tea.

Only drinks coffee,

and he has exactly five lumps in every cup."

And "always stands when a woman enters the room."

He's an absolute perfectionist.

Oh, parfait.

MURRAY: I think that there's a lot of Poirot in David as well.

He's very old school.

He's a complete gentleman.

He stands up for ladies.

He acts it through to his feet.

I mean just the sort of walk and the precision the character.

And he sort of sustains it right through the day.

Clever boy he is.

I cannot say at the moment. I may be wrong.

Doesn't often happen to you.

It has happened twice in my career.

The voice took a long time to prepare,

because everybody who meets Poirot

mistakingly thinks he's French.

TIMOTHY: I certainly didn't think

that painted little French popinjay was going to be here,

sticking his nose where it doesn't concern him.

SUCHET: But the only way they can think he's French

is from the way he speaks.

But be can't sound pure French because he's Belgian.

And then to move my voice, which is quite deep,

into how I perceive that character,

which is a walking brain.

So he has no emotions, really, from below the neck,

so a chest voice wouldn't be applicable.

So I change my voice -- raise it until it lives in the head.

And you do that by talking up and talking up...

[French accent] ...until it becomes in the throat

and then it becomes in the head, and that is how he talks.

It is a head voice.

It is easy to let the tender feelings cloud the judgment.

SUCHET: Now, the walk -- I actually came across a quote,

and the quote went something like this.

"Poirot crossed the lawn in his usual rapid, mincing gait

with his feet tightly and painfully enclosed

within his shiny patent leather boots."

Hence the walk.

So, do you think he's the murderer, Poirot?

NARRATOR: It was also essential

to understand what was going on inside that Belgian gray matter.

You read people's minds -- psychology sort of thing.

Mais. D'accord.

It is the "why" of human behavior that interests me.

I'd like to murder that director.

SUGHET: All his stories are not necessarily whodunits.

They're "howdunits."

And howdunits comes from the psychology of the guilty party.

And that's what fires him and what excites him.

But I do know about psychology, madame.

And when people are together in the room and they talk,

the truth, sooner or later, it will always be revealed.

NARRATOR: Finally, David Suchet has to look like Hercule Poirot.

And for that, be needs a little help

from makeup artist Sian Turner.

One of the descriptions of Poirot in the books

is that he does look made up

and resembles almost a music-hall comic.

And people in the books, the other characters,

are always saying, "What a funny-looking little man."

I've got to play him as I look,

which is on the edge of being absolutely real

but also on the edge of being slightly caricature.

But not too much so that he's unbelievable.

It's a very fine line, yeah.

It's a full character transformation, really.

And it is that mustache that does it, really, isn't it?

As soon as that goes on, then he's there.

And actually from that moment on, I'm him.

[French accent] Et voilà.

The little man... with a big belly.

NARRATOR: ln the summer of 2005,

the Poirot team were in the south of France

to film "The Mystery of the Blue Train."

Welcome.

Nice and quiet, please. First positions.

And action.

LADY TAMPLIN: On the contrary -- It would be ghastly

not to be interrogated when it's so fashionable.

NARRATOR: ln true Agatha Christie tradition,

it features a wide range of wonderfully drawn characters,

including one played by an American screen legend.

We've got Van Aldin, played by Elliott Gould,

who's this big American businessman.

Mr. Poirot, Rufus Van Aldin.

I'm in oil -- figuratively speaking.

Monsieur.

We've got his daughter, Ruth.

I'm Ruth.

Or the Honorable Mrs. Derek Kettering

if I'm trying to book a table for lunch.

-You know the English. -Madame.

We've got Katherine,

who's just inherited a huge amount of money

but comes from a very simple background.

There I was in the back of beyond,

looking after a cantankerous rich old lady.

Next day, I'm one myself.

SUCHET: And we've got the typical Brit brigade

in the Riviera.

The expats, who are wonderfully drawn.

Your Lady Tamplin, played by the wonderful Lindsay Duncan.

All French hotels are intolerable,

especially the expensive ones.

No, no.

You are staying with us.

And we've got her very, very, very young husband,

played by Tom Harper.

Look here! I accuse you of being my wife!

And I demand the right to be kissed.

The book, by Agatha's own admission,

was not one of her favorites,

and we've taken some monstrous liabilities with it.

LENOX: Mummy's incorrigible!

She can't just have a party. She has to have a sensation!

ANDREWS: There's a house styled

to increase the number of suspects.

He may well be a killer, too, of course.

That's a bit worrying.

ANDREWS: It's dramatically desirable to have more people

to be anxious about as the story is progressing.

Oh, God!

She's only gone and invited him as well!

Oh, Mummy.

Not one to let a tiresome brutal murder cramp her style.

And it's quite a lot sillier.

Do you speak French at all?

Don't give it a moment's thought.

All the right people speak English.

HOPKINS: The Blue Train was a very glamorous vehicle

that was like Concorde of its time

that that took the jet set from London to the south of France,

where they partied like mad along the Riviera.

[Whistle blows]

SUGHET: Unlike the Orient Express,

where the murder takes place on the train

and the solving of the murder takes place on the train,

"The Mystery of the Blue Train" --

Yes, there is a murder on the train, but the solving of it

and the revealing of it all happens off the train.

And once again, it's Poirot's howdunit rather than whodunit.

[Bell tolling]

NARRATOR: Filming took place over nine days

in an area around Nice.

HOPKINS: The villages are incredibly beautiful,

the hilltop villages.

Church squares, old monasteries, winding little streets.

It's perfect.

NARRATOR: A local museum in Menton

doubles as the railway station.

The weather is good, but the forecast is not,

so there's an air of urgency on the set.

Everything needs to be shot while the weather holds.

Everything for Poirot has got to be totally immaculate.

So we've got a Dunhill cigarette lighter, original.

This is what he's going to be using for looking for clues

when he's on the railway carriages.

This is his Russian cigarettes that he smokes.

They're cut down to size for him.

And his monogrammed box.

We've got original Louis Vuitton which is 75 years old.

The value of maybe 15,000 on some of the luggage.

NARRATOR: The weather takes a turn for the worse.

But spirits remain undimmed.

Apart from the wind blowing everywhere

and my hat about to go, Makeup can't deal with my hair.

So I've got to put it back on again.

It's really nice, actually. It's lovely.

It's fun filming somewhere else.

To actually be in the place

where you are supposed to be filming in the story

is really nice, instead of pretending.

SUCHET: Catherine becomes his friend,

almost his daughter figure.

It's a constant reminder of how lonely a man Poirot really is.

I think he has a sort of little crush on her,

which is quite nice.

Did you know the woman?

Um, n-no.

I-I mean...

No. Not really. No.

My character keeps her own counsel

and doesn't give much away.

So you're not quite sure what sort of person she is.

And certainly you're not sure whether she's got anything to do

with the predicament.

I've got a few nice frocks as well.

You know, it's always nice.

NARRATOR: Sci-fi fans will remember Josette

from her time in "Blakes 7."

And comedy fans will be delighted to know

that there's another familiar face on the set.

It was funny meeting Trigger from "Fools and Horses."

I was asked,

"Would you like to play a Frenchman in Nice for 10 days?"

And I thought, "Well, yes, actually.

Very nice. Thank you."

And turn over.

NARRATOR: Roger Lloyd-Pack plays a French detective

who mustn't speak French.

LLOYD-PACK: Well, to speak as an Englishman,

not with a French accent, as it were,

they're worried about too many funny accents

and it might start looking like "'Allo 'Allo"

Or something like that.

[French accent] I can't do a French accent,

which would be a little bit amusing for me.

Her face.

Well, there isn't one.

She's been hit so many times, there's nothing left.

NARRATOR: Such is the interest in a new "Poirot,"

even David Suchet's stand-in is interviewed for a TV magazine.

Standing in, it's something which I like doing.

And I used to stand in for Ross Kemp

when he had some more productions that he was doing.

HALE: The job involves being a camera-lighting stand-in.

It's exactly what it says it is.

When they've rehearsed the scene,

they have to light it and rehearse camera moves.

And obviously that can take anything from half an hour

to sometimes two bours depending on how intricate it all is.

And my job is to be there for David,

stand still for quite some length of time,

and indeed do the moves that are required.

And that way, he can then rest, be refreshed, learn more lines,

and come out fighting, as they say,

when they're all ready for him.

NARRATOR: As the rain starts to fall,

the stand-in becomes even more important.

Fortunately, all the key filming has been done

before this Mediterranean downpour puts an end

to the day's proceedings.

[Indistinct conversations]

SUCHET: The great thing about coming to the area

of Nice and Menton is that.

You could be in Italy.

[French accent] This whole area is so Italian.

It's all my beautiful and favorite colors.

It's wonderful.

Nothing like Belgium.

NARRATOR: Nothing like Belgium

and certainly nothing like Hollywood Boulevard.

GOULD: For me, it's like another version of "Brigadoon."

It's just the way it was.

One of the buildings behind me has a commemoration

from 1290-something until 1990-something.

So that was even before America was discovered.

My character is an American character

traveling with my daughter, who I passionately love.

And I am a very wealthy person

and buying my daughter anything and everything

that is special and unique to express my love for her.

MAN: The Heart of Fire.

VAN ALDIN: So it is.

NARRATOR: The film opens

with Van Aldin acquiring a rare jewel for his daughter.

An alleyway in Menton Old Town

doubles as the back streets of Paris.

Okay. We'll do one more, please, guys.

NARRATOR: A stunt double gets stuck

into a serious fight scene under Elliott's watchful eye.

[Man grunts]

A clever piece of editing,

and it's Gould who emerges from the action.

MAN: And action!

GOULD: My character's private life

and personal life is somewhat abstract and bizarre,

as we don't find out about me

until Poirot starts to examine my story.

VAN ALDIN: That's good, Poirot.

Oh, boy. You are very good.

SUGHET: He's embraced the role

because he wanted to be in a "Poirot."

I mean, that's the greatest compliment we could have

is when actors of that status

say they want to be in this program.

I'm very flattered.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

Yeah.

Am I happy?

I'm always happy.

NARRATOR: But no one's happier than Poirot's many French fans.

Franco-Belgian relations were reaching new heights.

SUCHET: [ French accent ] They all watch the series.

I had no idea.

I'm on tonigbt.

You watch it every week?

Every week. Yes. [ Laughs ]

Commence.

Un. deux.

Oui.

During the two weeks that I've been here,

I've been approached by so many fans.

He's a cult figure.

I had no idea at all.

C'est bon.

Voilà.

Parfait. Bravo.

Poirot.

It's huge. Unbelievable.

Merci.

I must be careful he doesn't take over the role.

NARRATOR: Getting the right location is crucial to the film,

and it helps when all the important people love the show.

We've got complete support from the mayor and everybody else.

And so we were able to close down roads,

take over museums -- anything we wanted, really.

NARRATOR: This café location

was lovingly re-created from old photographs.

OHANIAN: This building, in fact, was a casino

in the period of time we are shooting, actually.

Now this casino is a café for us in 1935.

The daugbter faked her own death to punish Papa.

Or to escape her husband.

NARRATOR: Roger Lloyd-Pack finally gets a chance

to not do his French accent...

I don't know. Both.

NARRATOR: ...and then leads the exodus back home to England.

Au revoir. Nice.

NARRATOR: The platform scenes and train exteriors

were shot the following week.

And if you want to film the Gare de Nice,

the obvious place to go is Peterborougb.

[ French accent ] Oh. Hello. Nice to see you.

We're in Peterborougb now, where the blue train is.

NARRATOR: Nene Valley Railway is home to Thomas the Tank Engine,

the only genuine blue train on view.

But TV is a magical thing.

We couldn't find a yard

that would be exactly as it was in Nice in 1938.

And it's a lot simpler and a lot more fun to do it by trickery.

Do whatever we like that way.

TESSLER: This is the only place in the country

that has the right kind of railway carriage.

It's the blue and cream colors of the original Blue Train,

so we've come here and we're pretending

that it's four different railway stations in France.

We have to try and think of ingenious ways

to disguise things.

It sometimes tests us.

After we've filmed,

we're going to go introduce some computerized images

which will kind of reinforce the period

and the places that it's supposed to be.

[ Whistle blows ]

There's the train whistle going. Our murder is about to happen.

My dear Lady Tamplin.

LADY TAMPLIN: Don't. I think I'm going to be sick.

-What ever is the matter? -Oh, God.

I shouldn't have to look at all that blood.

HILLS: This is a very key moment in the film

where they arrive after the train journey.

And what you need in a film

are moments when you really see what you want to see.

The train and all the platform are going to be shot for real.

And the other half of it will be done by trickery later on.

So we are seeing Nice in 1938.

[ Indistinct conversations, steam hissing ]

[ Whistle blows ]

[ Woman screams ]

NARRATOR: There's not just the station scenes to consider.

The train also has to be filmed on the move.

TESSLER: Hopefully we'll convince the audience

that they're seeing the train travel through France.

[ Train chugging ]

NARRATOR: The traveling scenes at first look like this.

But add a sprinkling of computer graphics and voilà --

The Blue Train glides across a beautiful French landscape.

The last stop on this whirlwind journey is Shepperton --

Stage K, to be precise,

where Jaime Murray has an appointment with death.

I'm going to be a bloody corpse later.

Nice to always get murdered first thing in the morning.

[ Laughs ]

My agent said to me, "I've got this wonderful script.

'Poirot.' It's a wonderful part.

And you get to go to the south of France."

And then I started reading the script.

And I read it.

And then I --

"She's murdered? I'm killed?"

And I was flicking forward and flicking back

and thinking it must be some sort of mistake,

because I'm killed on the train on the way to France,

so I never got to go there.

The rest of the cast all went to Nice,

and I stayed in sunny old England.

I was most disappointed.

NARRATOR: But before you can murder someone,

a number of things need to be in place.

So to make it look real, we've got fake blood,

which is glycerin and food color,

which gives it the consistency of thick blood.

And when it dries, it still looks like normal blood again,

so the effect is splashed everywhere.

CAUX: Mirror. Smashed.

A bottle of champagne. Smashed.

MAN: To stop any actors getting hurt, we use sugar glass.

So you just put it on your head and...

and it doesn't hurt.

NARRATOR: Ever wondered how they film

those moving train sequences with night lights flashing by?

This is how.

And now it's time for Jaime to meet her maker.

The last scene filmed for "Blue Train" is the murder.

A murder which Poirot solved weeks ago.

[ Screams ]

NARRATOR: That is the strange and wonderful world of TV drama.

The police, they will have to be involved.

NARRATOR: On the same day

Jaime Murray is being murdered on Stage K,

a short distance away, David Suchet is arriving

for a read-through of his next Poirot mystery.

I'm going to read this script, see how it sounds off the page,

and see whether any editing or corrections

or revisions need to be done.

It's also timed.

Action!

NARRATOR: Within a week, the crew and a cast

which includes Geraldine James and Robert Bathurst

are on location to shoot "After the Funeral"

At magnificent Rotherfield Park in Hampshire.

SUCHET: It's possibly one of the most extraordinary locations

in which I've filmed

because it is a running private family estate.

It's like walking back into time.

Welcome to Enderby, Mr. Poirot.

Merci.

Ah. C'est magnifique.

TULLO: You read the script.

It sort of just sprung up and went, "Oh, yes.

It must be Rotherfield."

And as you come up the driveway,

you kind of see the house set up on the hill.

And it just suits the story really well.

And the interior is fantastic.

Though we're here for two weeks,

you won't get bored at this location.

There are a lot of different things there

which are good to look at.

[ Down-tempo jazz playing ]

It's very nice to sort of swan around here

and believe that it's 1936 or whatever it is

and this is my husband's family home.

[ Clicks tongue ]

We should be so lucky, frankly. It's great.

[ Music continues ]

PHILLIPS: The interiors required almost no dressing at all.

All the furniture and the paintings

and the antiques were perfect for the period,

so that was a big, big plus.

What's important is the outside and the grounds,

because all that is evocative.

The views, where it's situated.

What time of the year is it? What color stone is it?

All that will have a bearing on the atmosphere of the piece.

So it is very vital. Yes.

NARRATOR: The house has been used for several film shoots,

including Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca"

and "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

For the owners, show biz isn't always a fun business.

I suppose we must be on various databases.

And, of course, you also get eager young men

driving up the drive on spec, looking for a likely location.

Sometimes it gets too much,

but we don't have them in our bedroom

and sitting room and kitchen.

But I certainly had to move out of my office.

It's a bit of an inconvenience, really.

I would say that.

Turn over!

SCOTT: The upside is it's quite a fun thing to be associated,

particularly when you have a quality production

with some actors and actresses that you admire.

And thank you for your hospitality.

Thank you, Mr. Poirot.

And obviously there is a check as well.

NARRATOR: "After the Funeral"

Is a very English Agatha Christie story

featuring a dysfunctional family

which comes together following the death of Richard Abernethie.

I am the family solicitor who is having to deal with them.

He doesn't particularly like them, but he sort of has

a professional relationship with them.

And he gets his old mate Poirot in.

Who benefited from the death of Richard?

The whole family. Apart from George, of course.

And myself, to a small degree.

Ah. So you yourself are a suspect?

NARRATOR: Once again, the cast features

some of our finest acting talent,

including Geraldine James, whose CV ranges from "Gandhi"

and "Jewel in the Crown"

to "Calendar Girls" and "Hearts of Gold."

-[ Laughs ] -It must be quite terrifying.

She's done everything from Shakespeare to "Little Britain."

And a great sense of humor, great timing,

and just seems always so natural in the part

and is always incredibly prepared

and is an absolute joy to work with.

I felt there was something wrong that day.

In what way wrong, madame?

Unexpected or surprising?

Sinister, even?

Not sinister, no.

More a sense of something not being quite right.

BATHURST: Some people are brittle.

They might feel as though they're being directed

or in any way having their performance interfered with.

But with Geraldine, it's a complete two-way thing.

You can say one thing, and she says, "I don't agree with that,"

Or vice versa.

And it's a complete free and easy working relationship.

But at least you're all rigbt.

Your visits to him were a great help.

Oh, for heaven's sake.

It's George I'm concerned with.

NARRATOR: Geraldine once married David Suchet --

on-screen, of course -- in "Blot on the Landscape."

So I am a suspect in your investigations.

Madame, I only wish to discover the truth.

NARRATOR: And there is also another

of David Suchet's old friends.

I didn't like to say to Timothy,

"Your youngest sister is completely batty."

NARRATOR: Anna Calder-Marshall

gives a feisty performance as Maude.

But there are some scenes where she gets a little bit of help.

[ Up-tempo jazz playing ]

Yes, thanks to the magic of television,

the old lady at the wheel is in fact a man.

And talking of drivers, did you recognize this face?

Here's a reminder.

Yes -- David Suchet's driver, Sean O'Connor,

plays the part of Poirot's chauffeur.

And though the title "After the Funeral" doesn't suggest it,

the drama still bristles with typical Agatha Christie humor,

courtesy of our leading man.

MISS GILGHRIST: They're Mrs. Gallaccio's own paintings.

They're very good, aren't they?

Oui.

He has a humor in him, Poirot.

And I think the way David plays lets it through --

the sneaky things that come through that you suddenly see,

which I absolutely love.

But why would anyone want to do that?

Ah.

You enjoy watching him. You sort of relish his thought.

And he always has that Columbo moment in every episode,

when Columbo used to turn, about to leave a room, and say,

"Oh, and just one more thing."

Poirot, every episode, has that Columbo moment as well.

Monsieur, tell to me, if you please,

the two horses on which you won some money.

What were their names?

Gaymarck and lsambard ll.

Ah.

Merci.

NARRATOR: The third film in the new run is "Cards on the Table,"

an intriguing story based around a dinner party

and a game of bridge.

And once again, the stars have come out to play.

One, in fact, has actually come from the stars.

Although I did "Star Trek" for seven years

and we did a lot of bizarre stuff on that show,

I still hadn't done any '30s drama, period drama.

We all grew up on these shows.

These are the staple diet

of so much of the world of fiction and drama.

It's just a real pleasure to be on such a class one as "Poirot."

NARRATOR: Alexander Siddig,

Dr. Julian Bashir in "Star Trek,"

plays Shaitana, one of the world's richest men,

who just happens to have a fascination for murder.

SIDDIG: He's difficult to pin down.

Weird character.

He's sort of very louche and very big

and incredibly sort of gregarious.

Has a huge amount of energy.

So when I wake up, I have to really be on it

every time I come into work.

But it's great fun.

If I were to commit a crime,

I should like to keep it very simple.

An accident, perhaps --

a shooting accident, for example.

SIDDIG: He collects a group of people

who have all gotten away with murder in their lives.

Oh, Mr. Shaitana, I must protest.

When we poison our patients, it's entirely by accident.

He has them come to his house to play a game of cards.

And at the same time, he's got four sleuths,

four criminal masterminds.

The only thing he's missing is the murder victim,

and that turns out to be himself.

I'm very sorry to have to inform you that Mr. Shaitana...

is dead.

Dead?

HOPKINS: It's up to our crime solvers

to either figure out if it's one of them

or indeed one of the other four card players that have done it.

Bien.

What we are searching for is a murderer who is impulsive,

who will seize the opportunity, whatever the risk.

[ French accent ] It was someone in the apartment.

And so they are questioned.

And everybody has a past.

A dark past.

What is this past?

It is for Poirot to find out.

Mme. Lorrimer, she holidays in Egypt.

Mme. Craddock, she dies in Egypt.

And Shaitana, always he is there, in Egypt.

I was hoping for a trip to Egypt in this one.

But no, alas, we didn't.

We are shooting it on a green screen,

a computer-generated image.

I think it took a lot of courage

for the writers to set this show on a planet with a green sky.

It's one of the wildest things.

It will probably work on the day, though.

I think the green-screen work nowadays is so good

that it will look terrific.

MAN: 127, take two.

And marks.

Action!

SIDDIG: Egypt is a pretend thing.

A postcard on a picture.

May I take your picture?

You look so romantic looking out across the Nile.

NARRATOR: One of the guests at the bridge party

is Ariadne Oliver,

a crime writer partly based on Agatha Christie herself

and brilliantly played here by Zoë Wanamaker.

It's jolly curious.

Here are the four of us.

And we're all, well, for want of a better word, sleuths.

WANAMAKER: She is a friend of Poirot's.

And she's a sort of a spur for him

and a complete opposite to him, a mess.

But full of ideas and helps him solve some crimes.

MRS. OLIVER: Miss Meredith only stayed a couple of months.

She's never mentioned it, has she?

Excellent, madame.

You have done better than any of us.

What attracted me to Mrs. Oliver --

She was completely eccentric.

Lord. [ Chuckles ]

I went to Egypt once. It was dismal.

The Pyramids are actually tiny.

And slightly barking.

A Welsh name.

Never trust the Welsh.

I just thought it would be fun, it'd be a gas.

And also because I've worked with David Suchet before

and we had such a good time together.

I think it's a good coupling.

See you?

You commence to think like a detective.

Do I?

Oui. Bien sûr.

Zoë has created such a vivid portrayal of Ariadne Oliver

that you really do feel you are seeing a bit of Agatha Christie.

MAN: Action.

I don't know what you think,

but I haven't the least doubt it was the doctor.

What was his name?

-Roberts. -That's it.

SUGHET: [ French accent ] Ariadne is the only lady at all

that Poirot ever called by her Christian name.

This does not mean that he is in love with her.

I hasten to add, he is definitely not.

But she is a friend.

What if they're all leading you up the garden path?

No, it is not possible to take Hercule Poirot along the path.

NARRATOR: Ariadne appears in no less than nine "Poirot" stories,

so we may well be seeing more of Zoë and her alter ego

in the future.

HOPKINS: She and David Suchet make a fantastic couple.

I'd hope they'd do many more of the nine stories.

I think it's all possible.

NARRATOR: "Cards on the Table" also features an appearance

by the "Foyle's War" star Honeysuckle Weeks,

who thoroughly enjoyed living a decade earlier.

WEEKS: So classy, isn't it?

The whole setup and the way it's done

and the characters are so great.

I think Agatha Christie really knew about people.

I wish you would tell him

what happened at my Aunt Benson's, Annie.

I feel sure it'd be better to mention it,

because if something does come out,

it might look rather bad.

My character is a rather jolly-hockey-sticks,

if you want, kind of a character

who's also a little bit on the maybe AC/DC.

I don't know.

I want to get married.

I shall be forced to tell the police what I know.

You've been telling on me ever since we were at school!

WEEKS: I love doing period drama

because you get given so much to help you with the character.

You get the hats. You get the gloves.

You get the stockings. We even get the underwear.

NARRATOR: The producers of the "Poirot" films

are sticklers for detail,

especially when it comes to getting that '30s look.

Wardrobe is vital.

GILL: I've really grown to like the '30s as a period

because what we're seeing is this spectacle of people

sort of living the high life and really enjoying it.

But, of course, it's usually spotted around the place

with the odd murder or two.

She has killed before, mademoiselle.

No, she hasn't.

Mais oui.

She killed Mme. Benson.

GILL: We've got Zoë Wanamaker in,

and her character's quite colorful and eccentric.

And there's a couple of outfits we've got here.

This is her evening dress.

And to go with that,

she has a coat which is an evening coat.

And these are for the scenes

when they go to Mr. Shaitana's party.

Mrs. Oliver was the guest of honor.

Oh, yes. It was the Crime Writers' Circle, wasn't it?

WANAMAKER: I did have an image of Ariadne

quite early on, when I started reading the books.

So it can't be her.

And I never thought Roberts did it.

WANAMAKER: I was quite determined to have this wig,

which I think is sensational

because we can do things with it,

and I can scratch my head and it looks like it's happening.

RHODA: How wonderful.

Unfortunately, it's not just the writing.

One has to think as well.

I've got, um, false bosoms which I am --

They're called "medium beauties,"

You'll be pleased to hear. [ Laughs ]

All these things sort of help to create a real person.

NARRATOR: Keeping costumes looking good on set

is vital, too.

Especially when the leading man is encased in foam rubber

for most of the day.

It's a fairly lightweight foam padding,

but it does get incredibly hot in there for him.

And especially when you're filming in summer, like now.

It can at times be quite unbearable.

NARRATOR: And there are tools of the trade

to keep things looking their best.

In Hollywood in the olden days, when the actresses

or even the chorus,

in period costumes with big frills,

they couldn't sit down.

So they had what is called a leaning board.

It always provides a point of interest for anybody looking

because they wonder why am l getting special treatment.

But it's not.

The special treatment is given to my suit.

Not me.

[ Up-tempo jazz plays ]

NARRATOR: The attention to detail

also extends to the props,

some of which are reassuringly expensive.

SIDDIG: All this stuff is real.

It comes from this amazing Aladdin's cave

of a prop house.

They cost enormous amounts of money.

There's a fork somewhere that was like £2,000

and a lighter that's £10,000 pounds.

So everyone has to watch these things

before they go into people's pockets.

I'm forever just nicking stuff by mistake.

Ah. l pounce upon it now!

NARRATOR: It's okay, Alexander.

Poirot doesn't investigate petty theft.

Murder is his thing.

And the evil, it is disclosed.

NARRATOR: More than five months after shooting the first frames

in the south of France,

the Poirot team are back at Shepperton,

filming the closing scenes

of the fourth and final episode of the series.

And it's a darker version of Agatha Christie

than we've been used to.

Now we're being more truthful to how she wrote

and why people were so gripped by her novels.

It was not because she was just jokey

but because they were serious novels

that contained English eccentricity

and Belgian eccentricity.

Hercule Poirot.

You killed what?

NARRATOR: "Taken at the Flood" starts with a bang --

literally --

and proceeds with the usual combustible mixture of greed,

jealousy, blackmail, and, of course, murder.

[ Woman screams ]

Once again it features a dysfunctional English family --

the Cloades.

You have a lot of unresolved indigo in your aura.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

HOPKINS: Today we're shooting the denouement,

which is the point in every "Poirot" story

where Poirot has come to the conclusion of who has done it.

Because you murdered her.

HOPKINS: The scene is in the Stag's Head,

which is the local pub.

POIROT: You leave for the police to find a little clue.

HOPKINS: Poirot has called the entire clan to the pub

to unveil who the villain is.

POIROT: At half past 6:00,

you return here to say yes...

SUCHET: [ French accent ] Some people say,

"Why doesn't he just say, 'You did it'"?

Well, he's far too arrogant for that

and he's far too proud for that.

This is his party piece.

This is his moment of thėâtre -- theater.

And so he gets everybody in the room and he plays.

But today, mes amis. Poirot shall produce a murderer

of whose viciousness he stands in awe.

NARRATOR: As has become the norm on "Poirot,"

David Suchet is joined

by some of the best-known actors on British television.

There's no way anybody's gonna be able to tell who's done it.

Because everybody is so famous,

there's no way you could guess, I don't think.

Having got ourselves completely in knots

and not knowing what's happened and who's done what to whom,

we find that Poirot actually has worked it all out.

And we discover all the nastiness that's been going on,

simmering underneath in the Cloade family.

MAN: Cut. Let's run out.

PIGOTT-SMITH: This dreadful man, Poirot, this awful Belgian

reveals to everybody the full extent of my addiction.

The sort of signs are, you know...this sort of thing.

And he's spotted this early on.

The physician, whose own digestive system is crippled...

PIGOTT-SMITH: He lays it out in front of everybody.

So really, it's a pretty wretched afternoon for me.

NARRATOR: And for Patrick Baladi,

it's a pleasant diversion

from having to sort out the mayhem caused by David Brent

in the hit TV comedy "The Office."

It's very rare to do period stuff now.

It used to be a mainstay.

And to work with Mr. Suchet, of course --

There's a lot to learn from him.

Non. Pas possible, monsieur!

SUCHET: [ French accent ] The one big difference in this one

which is most exciting for me to play --

and forgive me for talking with my accent,

but I'm going on in a minute --

is his Catholicism.

You wanted to crush the very soul

of this simple Catholic girl.

SUCHET: This story is absolutely rooted in his faith.

If God should withhold His mercy from anyone on earth...

NARRATOR: The final scenes in "Taken at the Flood"

see David Suchet at his brilliant best,

bringing all his stage experience to the small screen.

MAN: Cut. That was absolutely brilliant.

IMRIE: Andy Wilson, our brilliant director,

has allowed David to do the whole story of the denouement

so that we've had it in about 11 or 12 minutes or something.

Poirot shall talk.

IMRIE: I've never seen an actor have to do such long takes

and do it so utterly superbly each time.

MAN: Cut. Perfect.

[ Cheers and applause ]

We quite rightly gave him a round of applause yesterday.

Fantastic.

NARRATOR: As shooting on the fourth film draws to a close,

it's time to take stock.

HOPKINS: It's turned out even better than I could have hoped.

Each of the films has come out as a completely individual film.

And they're very entertaining.

No one can always be right.

But I am.

Always I am right.

HOPKINS: We've been lucky enough

to attract some fantastic actors to it.

Of course, Agatha Christie writes great, great characters.

Have you or bave you not engaged the services

of the greatest detective in the world?

As far as this filming is concerned this year,

I have to say it's been my favorite year

of all or any year I have filmed this series.

Bravo.

I genuinely mean this -- nontheatrically.

My happiest year of all.

Peter's been with me for a few years now

and has grown the same mustache.

[ Laughter ]

Poirot, he sees things, madame.

It is a habit that he cannot change.

NARRATOR: So, what next for Suchet's Poirot?

C'est très mystérieux.

NARRATOR: There is one story everyone wants him to do,

including the man himself.

I'm desperate to do "Orient Express,"

the same as I was so excited to do "Death on the Nile."

Yeah. These are big ones.

These are big landmarks in Poirot's career.

NARRATOR: According to the company

that own the rights to the Agatha Christie estate,

David's wish could soon be realized.

CLYMER: There's an appetite here.

There's an appetite internationally.

And I think as long as Mr. Suchet has the time

and the disposition to carry on making them

and we can find the money to carry on making them

and the ITV audience wants us to carry on making them,

we'll keep going.

Now, that is information that is most intriguing.

NARRATOR: David Suchet has been turning into Poirot

for nearly 20 years now

and has almost completed the Agatha Christie catalog.

Enfin.

All of the pieces of the puzzle are in place.

NARRATOR: And there's no reason to suggest

that he won't collect the full set.

If we do get to the end, I will be so thrilled to bits

that I've accomplished a life's dream as an actor.

And that, no one can say very often.

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