Richard, Agatha and me

On By EstherIn Actors, Real life, Richard Armitage

Rich is yet again busy with audiobook recording, this time in his at home studio. Apparently now he’s recording Agatha Christie’s first Poirot book. I know Hercule Poirot is Belgian, not French, but the striped shirt Richard’s wearing has a French vibe which suits Poirot. 🙂

2020-05-06 10_35_20-Richard Armitage op Twitter_ _I’ve been hard at work recording two beloved Agath

Maybe he should have introduced himself as Reeshar Armeetahzg.

This ‘good fan’ *cough* (I’m not a little child!) has perked up her ears at the mention of Hercule Poirot. Will he be narrated with a French-Belgian accent? Now that I might want to hear. Reeshar mentions that he will tell us something about a personal connection he has to Agatha Christie and I have one too which I can’t resist sharing here.

My father hardly read fiction, it was mostly non-fiction theology, religion, philosophy and politics for him. He did read Agatha Christie, however. In fact, I still have a few Agatha Christies on my bookshelf precisely because they belonged to my father and I can’t bear to give them away.

20200506_104842

I’m not a huge mystery book reader but my dad encouraged me to read Agatha Christie and so I did and I enjoyed them. He especially loved Hercule Poirot and also the Hercule Poirot movies with Peter Ustinov. Ustinov will always be the definitive Poirot for me.

death-on-the-nile-poirot-peter-ustinov-1406643155

Will Richard reading Agatha Christie, and Hercule Poirot specifically, convert me to audiobooks? If my dad were still alive, I’d certainly invest in a Christie audiobook for him to see how he’d like it.

35 thoughts on “Richard, Agatha and me”

    1. Cool that they were your dad’s faves too. 🙂 Haven’t watched the new Murder on the Orient Express yet (with Ken Brannagh) as I just can’t imagine he’d be as good as Ustinov was in that role. The clips I did see of him, while fine, didn’t convince me.

      Not quite sure which video salut you mean (and I suck at remembering when he wore what). The striped shirt instantly did make me think of this tweet from some years ago (looked it up, it’s from 2014!)

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      2. Ah I was being cheeky Esther the video with the sex bed hair from two days ago. That’s a striped shirt he’s got on there and I didn’t know if it came from the same family as Audible stripe shirt or perhaps the same one
        The Kenneth Branagh version I thirst was terrible and I like KB a lot!
        Thank you for the link too on The Armitage in stripes! I had never seen that one!! 🥰❤️

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        1. Ah, Michele, sweetie pie, ze stripes on zat shirt from zome days ago are zo different. 😉 (Sorry, that’s just me trying a French accent in writing).

          I like Branagh too which is why I wanted to see that version as well in the first place. So, you didn’t like it much either. My incentive to watch it now is shrinking further…

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          1. Esther oui oui me thinks me need new reading glasses 😂😂😂
            Branaghs version was boring and bland to me
            He pumped it full of celebrities to disguise a bad script bad special effects and bad direction
            I fell asleep through the middle if it.

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  2. oh me and Michele giggle about Reechard alot!
    that’s a lovely thing to keep your Dads books x

    I am a David Suchet girl though! loved him so much as Poirot, he came to Chepstow a few years ago for a book talk and I missed out-but a friend who works at the venue sweetly got a poster signed for me!
    have you seen the Kenneth Brannagh Poirot? it was abysmal imo

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    1. I was just commenting above to Michele that I hadn’t seen the Brannagh one yet. I’ve heard such mixed reviews and I fear I would find it abysmal too. I will try it sometime, though, just to judge for myself.
      I have seen some of Suchet and always understood he was good. At the time I didn’t want to see much of him as he wasn’t Ustinov (oh my goodness, so misguidedly principled then!). I really should catch up with him as Poirot. How cool that you got his signature! Speaking of signatures, I met Peter Ustinov on my 22nd birthday at a book reading and signing and he signed a book for me too (“For Esje” – Esje is my nickname).
      https://bookesther.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/ustinov-autograph.jpg?w=700&h=

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      1. oh that’s cool! Ustinov was a wonderful actor! I think for me, i grew up watching David Suchet in the role and he seems like such a nice fellow too.
        Also the set design was gorgeous and i loved the actors who played Ms Lemon and Hastings too
        give the KB one a try and let me know what you think

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  3. I love Poirot and Agatha Christie. There’s nothing like a classic English “cozy” mystery! I didn’t care for Branagh’s Poirot because his mustache was so distracting. I liked David Suchet. Would love to see Ustinov play that role.

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  4. Servetus

    I loved Christie and I’d read all of the Poirot books by the time I was 14. However, a fakey accent would be a big turnoff. My bigger fear is more that (like most stuff written back then) I’d go back and have my wonderful memories (curling up in at my grandmother’s with an apple and a book outside in the “playhouse” and reading for hours uninterrupted) by discovering they were horribly racist. So … undecided.

    And honestly, Audible can get bent with with its condescension. Audible marketing was one of the bigger reasons I have basically quit Twitter in all but name. You can’t get away from it in the fandom.

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    1. Yeah, I ignore Audible, scroll past as quickly as I can.
      Having childhood illusions broken is tough, which is why I have resisted other Poirots than Ustinov for fear of them spoiling the character for me.
      I’ve gotta say, I am curious about Richard’s accent. I thought his French in Pilgrimage was good (to an outsider’s ears) so him doing a French accent doesn’t have me that worried. I actually quite like the thought of him whispering French accented sweet nothings in my ear.

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      1. Servetus

        Stay away from Branagh — “Murder on the Orient Express” was horrible. But I always think when I’m watching Branagh that he’s insanely overrated. There must be something I’m missing. Ustinov is “my Poirot” too but I wouldn’t say I have strong feelings about him in that role, any way. In general when I see him on the screen I get warm feelings, like I’m re-encountering an old friend. I loved him in one of his last roles (as Friedrich der Weise in Luther).

        I don’t really like it when Armitage does accents — it’s not his strongest skill and I find it gimmicky. The deal with Poirot is of course that it’s a feature of the character; one of the first things you notice about him is his non-native English. So it will have to be done really well. Still not sure I will listen in, though.

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        1. Oh, I do like Branagh! But the consensus really does seem to be that Murder on the Orient Express was bad. Yes, I also always get very warm feelings when I see Ustinov. Just re-watched Spartacus last week because of my Jean Simmons re-discovery and he was so good in that too!

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  6. Reeshar Armeetahzg! Oh that’s so funny, I hope he does – and I loved his French accent in Pilgrimage. I actually prefer a really badly done accent, than listening to British accents in dramas etc set abroad – you know, e.g. a broad Glaswegian Madame de Beauvoir, although I’m probably in the minority and it must be insulting to native ears. The Brannagh film was a pointless mess and my favourite Poirot (so far!) is Albert Finney from the original film. I wish eh had made more. Although I liked Suchet too. Peter Ustinov was great but he didn’t have an egg-shaped head!
    We stayed with my uncle in the summer, when I was a child, and he had many Agatha Christie books. the covers used to terrify me.

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