The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [22]
Like Arthur Conan Doyle, Christie was to become increasingly tired of her detective, Poirot. In fact, by the end of the 1930s, Christie confided to her diary that she was finding Poirot "insufferable", and by the 1960s she felt that he was an "an ego-centric creep". However, unlike Conan Doyle, Christie resisted the temptation to kill her detective off while he was still popular. She saw herself as an entertainer whose job was to produce what the public liked, and what the public liked was Poirot.
In contrast, Christie was fond of Miss Marple. However it is interesting to note that the Belgian detective's titles outnumber the Marple titles by more than two to one.
Poirot is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary in The New York Times, following the publication of Curtain in 1975.
Following the great success of Curtain, Christie gave permission for the release of Sleeping Murder sometime in 1976, but died in January 1976 before the book could be released. This may explain some of the inconsistencies in the book with the rest of the Marple series - for example, Colonel Arthur Bantry, husband of Miss Marple's friend, Dolly, is still alive and well in Sleeping Murder (which, like Curtain, was written in the 1940s) despite the fact he is noted as having died in books that were written after but published before the posthumous release of Sleeping Murder in 1976-such as, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. It may be that Christie simply did not have time to revise the manuscript before she died. Miss Marple fared better than Poirot, since after solving the mystery in Sleeping Murder, she returns home to her regular life in Saint Mary Mead.
On an edition of Desert Island Discs in 2007, Brian Aldiss recounted how Agatha Christie told him that she wrote her books up to the last chapter, and then decided who the most unlikely suspect was. She would then go back and make the necessary changes to "frame" that person.
In popular culture
Christie has been portrayed on a number of occasions in film and television:
The first occasion was the 1979 Agatha, when Vanessa Redgrave portrayed her.
Hilda Gobbi in a 1980 Hungarian film, Kojak Budapesten
Peggy Ashcroft in a 1986 TV play, Murder by the Book in which Ian Holm appeared as Poirot
Esme Lambert played the part in The Dead Zone episode "Unreasonable Doubt", transmitted on July 14, 2002.
Olivia Williams played the part in a BBC television programme entitled Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures which, like Agatha, revolved around the 1926 disappearance. It was transmitted on September 22, 2004.
Aya Sugimoto in an episode of a Japanese television series called Hyakunin no Ijin in 2006
On August 10, 2007, it was announced that actress Fenella Woolgar (who had appeared as Ellis in Lord Edgware Dies) would appear as Christie in the 2008 season of the science fiction TV series Doctor Who.
Michelle Trout will play the part in a US film, Lives and Deaths of the Poets, which is due for release in 2009.
A precog in the movie Minority Report (film) is named after her.
List of works
Novels
Year
: 1920: The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Detectives: Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, Chief Inspector Japp
Year: 1922: The Secret Adversary; Detectives: Tommy and Tuppence
Year: 1923: The Murder on the Links; Detectives: Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings
Year: 1924: The Man in the Brown Suit; Detectives: Anne Beddingfeld, Colonel Race
Year: 1925: The Secret of Chimneys; Detectives: Superintendent Battle
Year: 1926: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; Detectives: Hercule Poirot
Year: 1927: The Big Four; Detectives: Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, Chief Inspector Japp
Year: