Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet

As an avid Agatha Christie fan, I have to say that the Channel 4 series, Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet, is one that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Currently showing on More 4 each Wednesday, the series is both an biographical look at Agatha’s World tour that took in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada in 1922, and is also a travelogue, trying to recreate the tour by visiting the same places that Agatha visited then.

Sir David Suchet

Having Sir David Suchet present this programme is an absolute masterstroke. Of course, he will forever be associated with Agatha through his masterful, iconic performance as Hercule Poirot in the ITV series, but is success in this series is due to far more than this. He has a clear love and respect for Agatha and her work, and this shines through. He is also a lovely warm presenter, and a great raconteur. I can attest to this after attending his talk Poirot and More a few years ago – he is able to enchant an audience with his storytelling, and this works in bringing Agatha’s tour to life for the viewer.

Early Agatha

In 1922, Agatha was not yet World famous. At the time of embarking on this tour she had written just two books, the most recent being her Tommy and Tuppence outing ‘The Secret Adversary‘. So the Agatha we see in this documentary series is very different to the later, world famous one. She was accompanying her husband Archie on this tour, and he was the important one, Agatha was just invited to tag along. But, as is shown in episode two, where Agatha encounters someone reading The Secret Adversary, her fame was just around the corner.

Finding Inspiration

One of the fascinating things about the series is how Agatha found inspiration for a new book whilst on the tour. The Man in the Brown Suit is a great, early Agatha book. It is an adventure story where much of it takes place on a liner bound for Africa. It is said that Agatha’s host on the tour, Archie’s boss Major Ernest Belcher, was the inspiration for the charming villain of the book, Sir Eustace Pedler. Major Belcher was quite a mercurial character by all accounts, and, if Agatha was to add him to one of her books, he insisted he should be a villain.

Episode three of Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet airs tonight on More 4.

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