#poirot 5x06: the chocolate box

[poirott]

Dark!Poirot AU: Hercule Poirot as a criminal mastermind

An alternate universe where Poirot is the master criminal rather than a world-renowned detective.

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT (1989 - 2013)

[zelroy]

I'm watching Agatha Christie's Poirot 5x06 "The Chocolate Box"

[poirott]

Hercule Poirot + gathering clues

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT (1989-2013)

[poirott]

David Suchet and Anna Chancellor as Hercule Poirot and Virginie Mesnard ♥ AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT 5x06 "The Chocolate Box"

"The story gave me the chance to show Poirot's emotional side, for as part of the film, he loses his heart to a young woman, Mademoiselle Virginie Mesnard, who asks him to investigate a case of what may be murder, but is being called a natural death by the doctors. Virginie was played by the lovely Anna Chancellor, then still just twenty-seven, the year before she leapt to prominence as Henrietta, or 'Duckface', as she was known, in Richard Curtis's award-winning film Four Weddings and a Funeral. Then still in her bohemian period, Anna was quite superb in our film, bewitching the younger Poirot completely, and presenting him with the tiny silver vase for his lapel that he wore filled with wild flowers from that day onwards."

"In fact, that never happened in Dame Agatha's original story, but was another example of the screenwriter allowing Poirot an opportunity to display rather more of himself to the audience on television than he did in the original story. Filming it made me truly happy, for there was Poirot as a younger man, pursuing the case against the wishes of his superiors, losing his heart to Virginie, even running through the streets of Brussels - not something the older Hercule Poirot would ever have allowed himself to do. It was a breath of fresh air, and a joy to do." - David Suchet, Poirot and Me

[poirott]

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989 - 2013) + Hercule Poirot: The First Cases (2021) parallels → Poirot's early career

The First Cases PS4 game expands on the Agatha Christie book canon we've previously had about Poirot's career as a young policeman in the Brussels Police Force, before he became a detective in England. Newspaper clippings in the game's intro give us a glimpse of an officer with a bit of a wild streak, who doesn't shy away from defying orders when he deems it necessary.

In Agatha Christie's Poirot tv series' episode 5x06 "The Chocolate Box" young officer Poirot clashes with the Superintendent over an investigation involving the future mayor of Brussels, and gets yelled at for poking his nose into delicate affairs. Refusing to be cowed, Poirot takes on extra cases in his free time. He is admired in the press for being an excellent policeman, "a spark in the otherwise dull embers of the police force." His skills as a marksman are also established in the novel "Curtain" and the tv episode based on it.

Source: Game intro with newspaper clippings of Poirot + Launch trailer

[poirott]

David Suchet talks about Poirot in an interview with ABC News, October 2014 (first aired December 2017)

[poirott]

Hercule Poirot's Iconic Look in Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989 - 2013)

One object beautifully sums up David Suchet's Hercule Poirot. The tiny "lapel pin vase", a metal brooch holding a cut-down flower, was present through much of the 24 years of the series. It is both a significant object from a particular story (The Chocolate Box), but also an emblem of Poirot's character. The Belgian detective is meticulous - in his detection, but also in his dress, in his groomed moustache and in his immaculate modern (for the 1930s) flat. - BBC News Magazine, November 15 2013

[poirott]

Poirot and Hastings in uniform → 1890s Belgian police force / WW1 British Army (Lieutenant)

[poirott]

Agatha Christie’s Poirot costumes [1/?] ↳ Young Poirot’s 1890s Belgian police force uniform in 5x06: “The Chocolate Box” "[It was] exciting that I was to be dressed in a police uniform for the flashbacks in the 1890s, which allowed me to escape my padding, and even to renounce the walk I had used for so long playing him as an older man - remember, he was in his middle sixties when he was first discovered in The Mysterious Affair at Styles." - David Suchet, Poirot and Me

[poirott]

Agatha Christie’s Poirot costumes [2/?] ↳ Young Poirot’s grey pinstripe suit in 5x06: “The Chocolate Box” "See you, as a boy I was poor. There were many of us. We had to get on in the world. I entered the Police Force. I worked hard. Slowly I rose in that Force. I began to make a name for myself. I made a name for myself. I began to acquire an international reputation.” - Agatha Christie, Three-Act Tragedy

[poirott]

"A difficult smile to resist, eh, Hercule?" "Yes, indeed. Oh! If you think that the young lady and not the case attracted me, you do me a wrong, Claude." "Yet, you still wear the trinket she gave you."

[poirott]

"Poirot has most of the characteristics that the British of the time were supposed to despise in bourgeois foreigners. He is vain, fussy, dapper and conceited enough to expect that everyone has heard of him and admires him. Yet it is vital that he is acceptable as a foreign hero to the readers. So although he has the veneer of a foreigner, he possesses the manners, social graces, values and sentiments so important to the British. His friendship with a proven British loyalist, Captain Hastings, also endorses his credibility." - Cathy Cook, The Agatha Christie Miscellany

[poirott]

Poirot's chief personality characteristic was undoubtedly his overweening - but lovable - egotism. On rare occasions he would present an appearance of modesty, but it was patently so forced and false that it fooled no one. Some of his own evaluations from one story or another: "Hercule Poirot... is of a cleverness quite exceptional;" "impossible to deceive Hercule Poirot;" "me, I know everything." - Russell H. Fitzgibbon, The Agatha Christie Companion

[poirott]

“I don't find talking in the accent a strain," he [David Suchet] insists. "Once I'm into the character, the accent is easy to maintain. I used to find that if I kept going in and out of the voice, it added up to an hour to my working day. But once I go home I switch it all off, or otherwise I'd go mad." He does, however, remember one incident from the early days of the series with a mixture of amusement and satisfaction. "I often learn my lines in the car on the way to and from the studio," he says. "Once I arrived home and said to my wife, ''ello, darling, 'ow are you?' She replied, 'You're speaking with a French accent.' I said, 'No, I'm not -- it's Belgian.' I realised then I was right in character." - Peter Haining, Agatha Christie's Poirot: A Celebration of the Great Detective

[poirott]

Just wondering, & I hope this hasn't been asked before, but what are some of your favorite Poirot episodes? I always loved Third floor flat personally :)

*waves* Hellooo, fellow Moustachio! Excellent, 1x05 The Third Floor Flatis one of my faves, too, and 1x07 Problem at Sea (the doll scene!), I like pretty much every ep in season 1.

It’d difficult to choose but the rest of my list would include season 4 (The ABC Murders, Death in the Clouds, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe), 2x01 Peril at End House, 2x04 The Cornish Mystery, 2x07 The Adventure of the Cheap Flat, 3x01 The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 3x07 The Double Clue, 3x09 The Theft of the Royal Ruby, 5x01 The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb, 6x04 Dumb Witness, 7x02 Lord Edgware Dies, 8x02 Murder in Mesopotamia, 9x03 Death on the Nile, 10x01 The Mystery of the Blue Train, 11x04 Appointment with Death, 12x03 Murder on the Orient Express, 13x03 Dead Man’s Folly.

I want to name more because I love, love the show and picking faves is like picking your fave child, but these are at the very top for me. :) Special nod goes to 5x06 The Chocolate Box for the wonderful casting of the character Virginie Mesnard, played by Anna Chancellor, and for giving us the origin story of Poirot’s famous boutonniere - that it was Virginie who gave the lapel pin to him and that’s why he’s always wearing it. It’s a big “ohhh” moment you don’t see coming, I think the ep is a must for that scene alone, and for a glimpse into Poirot’s early career, of course. If that doesn’t convince you, how about young Poirot in his policeman uniform? ♥ Yep, I’m bringing that up again! :D

ALSO, VIRGINIE IS STARING AT HIS MOUSTACHE AND I CAN RELATE:

♥ That’s three times her eyes drop to the moustache. We’re all Virginie. ;)

Thanks so much for your ask!

[poirott]

More Poirot eps on Youtube

Since my first post with links to Agatha Christie’s Poirot episodes available on Youtube, more full eps have been added recently in good quality:

2x05: The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim

2x07: The Adventure of the Cheap Flat

3x04: The Plymouth Express  

4x02: Death in the Clouds

4x03: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

5x01: The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb  

5x03: The Yellow Iris

5x04: The Case of the Missing Will

5x06: The Chocolate Box

5x08: Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan

6x02: Hickory Dickory Dock 

6x03: Murder on the Links

7x01: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  

8x02: Murder in Mesopotamia  

9x04: The Hollow

10x01: The Mystery of the Blue Train

10x02: Cards on the Table  

10x03: After the Funeral  

11x01: Mrs McGinty’s Dead 

11x02: Cat Among the Pigeons 

11x03: Third Girl

11x04: Appointment with Death

12x02: Hallowe'en Party

12x03: Murder on the Orient Express

12x04: The Clocks

13x03: Dead Man’s Folly

Happy watching!