Being Poirot Page #4

and a hairpiece.'

I'd like a box that I can fill

with chocolates, please. Sure.

There's a murder, of course,

and Belgian chocolates appear to be

the cause of death.'

Of course what we have to remember

is the chocolate might have

tasted nice

but you wouldn't have lived

very long

to savour the aftertaste.

POIROT:
My duties as a junior police

officer

involved my regular attendance

at the Court of the Coroner.

The death of Paul Deroulard

was treated by all those concerned

as a matter of routine.

DAVID:
Where I am now is in the

Palace of Justice in Brussels.

And of course, Poirot would have been

very familiar with this place

cos this is the High Court, this is

the highest court in the land.

Superintendant Bouchet,

one moment, if you please.

Chantalier and myself,

we would be very happy to investigate

further the Deroulard case.

DAVID:
His methods of detection

are very basic.

He's not a forensic detective.

He likes clues, of course.

Everything is in the clue.

Jean-Louis, inside this envelope

are chocolate crumbs.

I want you to tell me by your

analysis exactly what they contain

and whether or not they contain

poison.

DAVID:
He's far more of a

psychologist.

He is interested in people's minds.

When he speaks with you,

he always says,

(AS POIROT) I listen to what you say

but I hear what you mean.

For it was you, Madame Deroulard,

who killed your son.

'In over 70 stories,

Poirot solved many intriguing cases.

But there was always one great

mystery that eluded him.'

The mystery that even I, Hercule

Poirot, will never be able to solve.

The nature of love.

I get lots of mail

and people talking to me

about Poirot's sexuality.

Why is everyone so afraid of sex?

Ooh!

"Why hasn't he married?"

"Does he fall in love?"

"Where's Poirot's romantic interest?"

'In Chocolate Box,

Poirot found the killer

but lost his heart to his client

Virginie Mesnard.'

I hope I haven't made things awkward

for you, Hercule.

And Poirot really becomes

very attached in an emotional way

to Virginie.

Perhaps...

this will say it for me.

'She gives to him

a little silver brooch.'

Virginie, you should not have.

'If you notice, when I play Poirot

as an older man,

he always wears it

and that was given to him

by his first love.'

He would love to have been married

but he knows himself.

No-one could put up with

his own weird eccentricities

as a person.

But in actual fact,

although he says that,

I believe he knows

that HE couldn't put up with them.

'Poirot was a lonely man

but what he does with his life

is solving crimes.

You've got it wrong,

you bloody little Frog!

Firstly, I am not

a bloody little Frog.

I am a bloody little Belgian.

'Poirot was proud of being

a Belgian citizen

but what do the locals think of him?

Who better to ask than Belgian

crime writer Stan Lauryssens?

Well -

So, how's Brussels?

Brussels is wonderful but I think

I have to congratulate you

because you won an award,

didn't you? A writing award.

Well, I won Hercule Poirot Award.

The Hercule Poirot Award?

Yeah, which is the award for the

best crime novel of the year.

Fantastic. Do you think Poirot

is typically Belgian?

He's typically Belgian because he's

got all the mannerisms of Belgians.

First of all, they're short.

Yes.

They're good-looking.

Oh, well, that's very kind.

What makes Poirot so endearing?

His warmth.

You can't be mad at him.

Do you get that from the page?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, that's what I found.

Yeah. You're speaking of Poirot

as though he was a real person.

He is. He is?

Who says he's fictional?

Because every night, at home,

anywhere in the world,

there you are.

You made him a living person

and that's your fault.

(SPEAKS EXCITEDLY IN FRENCH)

That's why people embrace you

in the street. Take photographs.

"Hey, here he is! Poirot!"

'Even without the moustache,

I'm always surprised to be recognised

anywhere in the world.'

Well, here I am in a police car,

with police outriders as an escort

and it's quite overwhelming.

Apparently, I'm going to meet

somebody very important.

Has to be important

for this sort of welcome.

Beautiful, isn't it? Yes.

Beautiful building.

'In fact, I've been invited

to meet the Mayor of Brussels

and the Chief of Police.

We're going to find out what they

think

of Belgium's most famous detective.'

Hercule Poirot.

Mayor Thielemans.

I say, back home, are you?

Would you have liked Hercule Poirot

here now?

Yeah, we need him.

Absolutely.

You need him?

Yeah. But with a moustache.

That can be arranged.

That can be arranged?

That can be put in the post.

Can we...

What do the Belgians think

of Hercule Poirot?

They are proud because he solved

matters the English couldn't solve.

And your accent was not too bad.

Thank you.

I wondered -

I felt very nervous meeting you!

You could have said it was terrible

and we are on television, you know?

Thank you very, very much. You've

given me such a lovely welcome.

It's a great honour to be here.

My pleasure. Thank you, sir.

They take Poirot to their hearts

and, you know,

Agatha Christie is widely read here

and Poirot is one of Belgium's sons.

When I was studying the character of

Poirot,

I learned that there was some

speculation about where he was born.

I think Agatha is actually quite

clear where he was born.

He was born in Spa in Belgium.

However, I'm on my way to a town

that has claimed him, in a sense,

to be one of its sons.

'There's something distinctly odd

about the small town of Ellezelles,

30 miles west of Brussels.

They like to think that Poirot

was born here.'

There he is!

'Local historian Pascal Hyde

can even show me a birth certificate

to prove their claim.'

So - Look, here is

the birth certificate.

(READS) Extrait de naissance

d'Hercule Poirot.

Here you have the name of your

father. Yes.

Jules-Louis Poirot.

Oui.

And you have Godelieve, your mother.

This is wonderful.

It is absolutely extraordinary.

There is my birth certificate.

Born in Ellezelles

on l'Avril 1st.

April Fools' Day.

'Some Belgians might dispute the

actual place of Poirot's birth

but there is no question about his

commitment to his faith.'

What's interesting for me

is that Agatha Christie makes him,

being Belgian, Catholic.

So he is a religious man.

POIROT:
There is nothing in the world

so damaged

that it cannot be repaired

by the hand of Almighty God.

He believes that 'le bon Dieu' -

the good God -

has put him on this earth

to rid it of crime

while he is still alive

and able to do so.

So part of Poirot's character

is in doing his job,

he's actually serving God.

'Agatha Christie's books reveal

that Poirot retired from the

Belgian police force

and that is world was thrown into

turmoil

at the outbreak of the

First World War.'

He couldn't have actually fought

in the trenches himself

because he was retired from the

Belgian police force

and then the war started

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