Chapter 12: Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Abstract

While London Weekend Television had been frustrated in their attempts to create a long running series based around one of Christie’s ‘big two’ characters in the first half of the 1980s, having been forced to create an indifferently received run of Partners in Crime starring Tommy and Tuppence instead, by the latter part of the decade the writer’s estate and agents were willing to consider the possibility more seriously. It helped that the BBC’s Miss Marple series demonstrated a standard to aspire to for the series, and the increasing power of international sales for prestige programmes had become an increasingly important factor, as it helped to justify higher budgets. Following discussions with LWT’s head of drama Nick Elliott, the Christie estate agreed to work with producer Brian Eastman who would make the series through his own company Carnival Films on behalf of the ITV franchise. The series would form part of LWT’s £38 m investment in drama for 1989 alone, and would eventually become one of the jewels in ITV’s crown.