Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet sees the actor journey around the world to recreate a trip taken by the Queen of Crime in the 1920s.
The five-part documentary is airing on More4 in the UK and is already available on BritBox in the US.
It follows Sir David Suchet, who played best-selling author Agatha Christie's dapper Belgian detective Hercule Poirot from 1989 to 2013, as he travels to various locations that the then 31-year-old writer visited in 1922 when she accompanied her first husband, Archie Christie, on a mission to promote the 1924 British Empire Exhibition.
Here’s everything you need to know about Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet, including an exclusive interview with Sir David Suchet…
Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet release date
The five-part series is airing on BritBox in the US and airs on More4 in the UK from Wednesday, May 21 at 9 pm.
The series will also be available on the Channel 4 streaming site.
Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet – what is it about?
In the series, Sir David Suchet visits Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada to explore some of the locations that Agatha Christie would have seen as part of her tour to help promote the British Empire Exhibition and strengthen trade links across the Empire.
He looks at how the countries have changed since Christie’s time, and how the trip impacted her life and her later work, as it took place just before her writing career properly took off and turned her into a publishing phenomenon. Meanwhile, he also examines the impact of colonialism.
Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet – episode guide
Episode One: Southern Africa
Beginning his journey in Cape Town, Sir David tours a wine estate and he learns about diamond processing in Kimberley. He also hears about the long shadow cast by controversial politician Cecil Rhodes, before ending up in Zimbabwe at the Victoria Falls.
Episode Two: Australia
Sir David visits a former jam factory and hydroelectric power station in Tasmania, and in Melbourne he travels on a steam railway, while he learns about soldier settlements that housed World War one veterans and he explores the Yanga sheep station in New South Wales where Christie spent time.
Episode Three: New Zealand
In Wellington, the actor goes to a wool factory before heading to a gold mine and hearing about Māori culture on South Island where he is given a piece of greenstone that is later made into a special necklace for him, and he also marvels at geysers in Rotorua.
Episode Four: Hawaii
Christie took a pitstop in Hawaii for a holiday, where she found a passion for surfing and Sir David learns what the sport would have been like for women at the time. He also discovers how to make traditional leis and finds out about cacao farming and hula dancing.
Episode Five: Canada
On his final leg, Sir David stargazes at an observatory in Victoria that Christie went to, he takes a train through the Rockies, visits a ranch once owned by Edward VIII and also hears about St Eugene school, where First Nations children suffered trauma, but it is now a hotel and cultural centre.
Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet – interview with Sir David Suchet
Tell us about the thinking behind the trip…
“We wanted to follow in Agatha’s footsteps and discover more about a young woman none of us really know. The journey was about seeing things Agatha experienced but also the world as it is now and the differences. It was an eye-opener.”
What were your highlights?
“Seeing the Victoria Falls was phenomenal. And at the Yanga sheep station, I sat in the orange grove where Agatha sat. Then the geysers in Rotorua were a wonder of nature, and the Rocky Mountaineer train was amazing. And being given a necklace [by Māoris in New Zealand] I was overcome. It’s a spiritual object, and they told me to wear it as often as I could, so that it absorbs part of me.”
Did you uncover a different side to Christie?
“Yes, I only knew about her as this reserved grand dame who shied away from the press. But in this, I was meeting a different woman. In Hawaii I saw what she was like when she had fun – she enjoyed surfing and was courageous.”
How did the trip influence her work?
“These were the months just before she became really famous. She was learning her vocation. And she put many experiences from the tour into her books – she loved travel and she used islands and railways in the novels. And Major Ernest Belcher [the tour’s leader] inspired a character [in The Man in the Brown Suit, her 1924 novel].”
You also look at the legacy of colonialism. What was that like?
“Disturbing. Learning about Cecil Rhodes [the controversial British businessman who was central to southern African politics in the 19th century], we dwelt upon the Rhodes Must Fall movement led by students who had an adverse reaction to him – he was to blame for beginning apartheid. But my driver felt without Rhodes, South Africa wouldn’t have the economy it had. I’m still digesting both sides.”
And finally, was it special taking photos of your travels with a camera similar to one owned by your photographer grandfather James Jarché?
“Yes, every day I almost had two people sitting on my shoulders – Agatha Christie on one and my grandfather on the other!”
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