A few months ago, we discussed the BBC’s “reboot” of the Hercule Poirot character. Agatha Christie created Poirot, a Belgian detective who left his home and moved to England after World War I and solved cases alongside his friend Col. Hastings and various police officers. Poirot is famously a lifelong bachelor and famously a devout Catholic. When David Suchet played Poirot, Suchet interpreted the character as someone who actually wished he had a wife and children, but it just never happened for him. Well, this new series is about “young Poirot,” and it will star a 33-year-old actor named Edward Bluemel. Apparently, the reboot will explore Poirot’s sexuality. This is not what Agatha Christie wanted!!
The sexuality of Agatha Christie’s enigmatic confirmed bachelor detective, Hercule Poirot, will be explored in a forthcoming blockbuster adaptation. The BBC six–part series, Hercule, with Edward Bluemel in the title role, is soon to start filming, mostly in Liverpool.
It will tackle the famous Belgian sleuth’s backstory and origins in a way not attempted by the beloved ITV adaptations, starring David Suchet, which simply followed Christie’s lead and introduced us to Poirot as a fussy, precise, middle–aged man with no interest in women – or men.
A source says: ‘The question of Poirot’s sexuality is addressed but not head–on. This is not an adaptation in which Poirot ends up in bed with anyone. But in the show there are some hints that he might be a bit fluid sexually, with attractions to men and women. There is an occasional frisson as well with people he meets. This is Poirot as a younger man.’
Bluemel, 33, will be the youngest ever Poirot. He played bachelor Jimmy Thesiger in this year’s Netflix adaptation of Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery.
Christie herself never wrote about the detective’s love life, although in 1940 book, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, he was ‘fascinated’ by and admired jewel thief Countess Rossakoff. All Poirot’s energies were devoted instead to solving crimes and his passion for ’tisane’, or herbal tea, and eating two boiled eggs for breakfast, which he insisted were of a matching size. Suchet, who portrayed the detective from 1989 to 2013, said in an interview that Poirot, depicted by Christie as a dandy given to personal vanity, was ‘not gay’ but instead ‘not actually sexual at all’.
He said: ‘Some people think he’s gay, but no! No, Poirot is definitely not gay. He fascinates me because he has a very particular sexuality. He’s not actually sexual at all, is he?’
Yeah, I believe Suchet’s version was probably the most faithful to Christie’s text, with Poirot as a fussy perfectionist who had an avuncular fondness for many women, and genuine friendships with only a handful of men, like Hastings. I don’t like the idea that this new show is going to take a definitive stance on Poirot’s sexuality, because that’s never been the point of the character?? Sidenote: I always thought that Poirot should have had a late-life marriage to his dear friend Ariadne Oliver, whom Christie based on herself.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Edward Bluemel attends ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ World Premiere held at Leicester Square,Image: 718172146, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Mandatory Credit ©Mario Mitsis, Model Release: no , Credit line: Mario Mitsis/Avalon
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- Edward Bluemel at The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power World Premiere at Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom.,Image: 718159858, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: To licence this image, email info@sidetrack.london for more information., Model Release: no , Credit line: Cat Morley/Avalon
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- Special screening of the British drama How to Have Sex at the Ham Yard Hotel. Featuring: Edward Bluemel Where: London, United Kingdom When: 03 Nov 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
No, no, no, no, no. This is not what Agatha Christie wanted, indeed. If you want to make a series about a Belgian detective with a sex life go right ahead and don’t call him Poirot and don’t bring Agatha Christie into it. This reminds me of the BBC and how year after year they adapted a Christie story into a Christmas blockbuster that always deviated from the original work. One year they even changed the murderer from the one in the book! Sacrilege and I’m not hear for this nonsense.
Even (of course!) that Daily Mail summary is wrong. David Suchet’s Poirot had PLENTY of interest in women. It was posited that he had fallen deeply in love before leaving Belgium (30 years?) to a lady named Virginie, and that this was perhaps why he never married. In the episode with her, it shows that he fell in love but was perhaps a tad too formal so never really “courted” her as it were. Perhaps he would have done so had he not eventually been evacuated from Belgium, but in any event he got a shock when he found that she had married one of his former colleagues and had named one of their sons Hercule. He always wore the bejewelled flower that she gave him on his lapel.
There are many episodes in which it was clear that Poirot had an interest or infatuation with some of the women he met. The robber Countess Rossakoff comes to mind first, but there were others. His interest in men, on the other hand, was largely collegial, in that the ones he become close to were regarded as true friends with whom he could engage in debate, host for dinners and teach them new things and yes, even learn from them.
So to me, if true, this focus on Poirot’s sexuality would be rather sordid. A man being extremely fastidious about many things may sometimes just be that, and nothing more. There is plenty of sexual intrigue in the Poirot series without them having to focus on that aspect of the main character. I fear that it will ruin Poirot for many devotees.
In short: you’re absolutely right Kaiser, and Kelly, this is not what Agatha Christie wanted! Some people just live to ruin things. Poirot didn’t even need a reboot, for goodness’ sake. Ugh.
P.S. I think he admired Madam Oliver, but she would have got on his nerves 😀 .
I’m good. Reruns with the wonderful David Suchet and Hugh Fraser are all the Poirot I need.
Hear, hear! Why mess with perfection? Also, I love that Art Deco buildings are so often featured.
I will give the series a shot. I like this actor. He was great in A Discovery of Witches.
He’s fabulous! If you haven’t seen My Lady Jane, put it on your list!
MY LADY JANE WAS SO MUCH FUN!
I’m so bummed it’s not coming back – I kept waiting for it.
FTLOG. It was never even hinted that he was attracted to men.
Poirot’s demands for order, precision and comfort would have driven any prospective partner mad, man or woman. And their demands as normal humans would have driven him mad. Sex and romance are just about the most messy and uncontrollable human interactions, both mentally and physically.
But he got this way somehow, and there are a lot of little clues to his backstory as a Belgian police officer, and he did do something special for the Belgian royal family that came to the attention of the British secret service. So, there are a lot of blanks that can be filled in. But, eventually, the story will have to lead to Christie’s Poirot.
Bluemel, 33, will be the youngest ever Poirot. He played bachelor Jimmy Thesiger in this year’s Netflix adaptation of Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery.
–Not watching any new HP series. Don’t care if they portray Poirot as gay, straight, asexual or fluid. I’m done with these AC adaptations. Seven Dials as a book was decent mystery. Seven Dials as a Netflix production was abysmally atrocious. And Bluemel, along with the rest of the cast, were horrible.
So what if Christie never imagined it that way? Maybe SHE was unconsciously closeted about Poirot’s sexuality, given that era. I don’t believe one character in all her books was gay. If I’m wrong, then she would have handled it with distaste. Also, her treatment of Jewish characters was not all that it should have been, to put it mildly. So they updated it with values one would wish everyone had– acceptance, not a big deal sort of thing. The choice is admirable and they can put up a disclaimer that they took liberty with Christie’s characters. I will watch it.
I don’t think any character was specifically described as gay in print (not something very common in mid-century popular fiction)…but there are several characters in the novels who are clearly meant to be gay and would have been recognized as such by readers. (Mr. Satterthwaite, for example.)
It was definitely hinted at and not said. And if Poirot was anything, he was asexual.
Agatha Christie did have many prejudices which came through in her writing, however she did write about same sex relationships although it was never labelled as such. The best example would be Miss Hinchcliffe and Miss Murgatroyd in A Murder Is Announced.
Thank you. I was like she would have made it plain to readers.
I’m happy that people who make entertainment are getting jobs. I’m even more happy that I don’t have to consume that entertainment.
I watched 1 episode of the 2025 Inspector Maigret series. It is updated and set in the present. Maigret is young. Inspector Janvier is a woman. There is nothing of interwar/postwar Paris that gives the stories their atmosphere. I never watched another episode, and I won’t be watching this!
This may be an unpopular opinion–but I’m used to having them, so here it goes. I find it rather lazy that any male character who isn’t blatantly heterosexual, must be closeted or grappling with his “true nature”. I love that Hercule Poirot is a lifelong bachelor, and have always felt that his ‘oddness’ caused by childhood trauma and the aftermath of being a veteran of WW1 prevented him from connecting romantically with women–he’s almost asexual–and let’s not forget that he’s Belgian..which is explains everything 😉