Actor Robert Powell was never a fan of Agatha Christie or her fictional great detective, but now that’s all changed as he tells Steve Pratt

ASKED if he’d like to play one of the famous fictional detectives on stage, Robert Powell’s answer was brief and to the point – “No”. But that wasn’t the end of the story. “That was my first reaction for lots of various reasons.

Eventually I came round to the idea,” says the actor.

He doesn’t elaborate on those reasons but they must include the fact that many other actors have portrayed Agatha Christie’s diminutive Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who gets his “little grey cells” working to solve murders. And as Black Coffee – the play in which he made his first stage appearance – was going into production, David Suchet was completing his stint as Poirot in the TV series.

It’s a hard act to follow, but you get the sense that Powell’s Poirot is very different to Suchet’s.

“Obviously, it’s a fun role to play anyway, particularly in the play we’re doing. Poirot is actually quite funny, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. He mangles his English a little,” he says.

“The response we’ve had so far on tour has been amazing. Virtually full houses every night.

From what I’m hearing, the audience absolutely adore it. One of the feedbacks I’m getting is that I’m a warmer Poirot.”

Obviously, he’s treading carefully because he doesn’t want to sound like he’s criticising other Poirots. The fact that this is a much-played role isn’t a deterrent for him. “If actors thought that, they’d never play Hamlet,” he says. “The very fact that it’s you makes it completely different.

There can’t be a comparison. The only comparion they can make is to say they quite like a warmer, friendlier Poirot.

“David Suchet did such a cracking job for 20 years. He set the template, but that’s not necessarily the actual Poirot. It’s a Poirot. He chose to do with very little humour. It’s a choice. Anybody can play anything if they have the nous.”

This Agatha Christie Theatre Company production is the first major revival in 40 years of Black Coffee, the mistress of murder’s debut play and the only one to feature Poirot. The little Belgian debuted in the 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair At Styles and went on to appear in 33 novels, one play and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975. To this day, he remains the only fictitious character to have received a front page obituary in the New York Times.

As to the plot of Black Coffee, the setting is a quintessential English country estate where eccentric inventor Sir Claud Amory is murdered and his new “earth-shattering” formula stolen.

Enter Hercule Poirot who, in Powell’s hands after reading the play, is not only humorous but irritable, angry... “all the elements for an actor to play”.

Powell was not a fan – “not remotely” – of Agatha Christie novels before the offer of the play came along. “I’d obviously seen the movies because I caught them on television with (Peter) Ustinov and my old mate Albert (Finney). I had never seen any of the TV Poirot. It just never appealed,” he explains.

Black Coffee was the first play penned by Christie. “She wrote it because other people had been adapting her Poirot books prior to this and she hated the adaptations. So she decided she’d do them herself,” explains Powell.

“It’s very well-written, it’s an original play. Someone made a book out of the play and it was dreadful. But as a play, it’s not been seen for many years.”

Those who look after the Christie estate have kept the play under wraps. Then the ITV Poirot series came to an end and producer Bill Kenwright, who tours the Agatha Christie Theatre Company, acquired the rights.

Suchet was well known for the attention to physical detail in his Poirot, where the camera would scrutinise every aspect of his performance. In the theatre, it’s different.

“Physically, it’s me,” says Powell of his portrayal.

“Particularly in the theatre, you can’t be wearing padding and that sort of stuff. I’m probably three or four inches too tall for Poirot, but Hastings is a good three or four inches taller, so it looks right. I have the moustache, which is all you ever need, and a rather natty suit “I do admit, I’d never read any of her books because it never appealed. But Christie is rather a good writer, much better than I thought. There are some lovely things in the play. There’s a moment the coffee cup gets passed round and someone gets poisoned. The audience go ‘ooh, aah’ because they’re desperately trying to track this cup as it goes round the stage.”

Powell, who made his name playing Jesus in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus Of Nazareth, came out of a long run in the BBC’s hospital drama Holby City a few years back and returned to the stage. His recent theatre work includes a spell in the London West End playing a Hollywood producer in Singin’ In The Rain.

He’s touring as Poirot for four months with the prospect of the summer off. “It’s a long time since I had a summer free because when I was doing Holby City it was a 50 weeks of the year job,” he says.

  • Black Coffee: York Grand Opera House, March 31 to April 5. Box office 0844-8713024 and online theatreroyal.co.uk