Goodbye To The Splendid 1930s World of Poirot - BBC News

7/27/23, 3:23 PM Goodbye to the splendid 1930s world of Poirot - BBC News
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Goodbye to the splendid 1930s world of

Poirot
15 November 2013
The fox clock on the mantelpiece was bought by David Suchet
By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24914782 1/13
David Suchet has had his last outing as Poirot. The TV adaptation was a
glorious love letter to the design and architecture of the 1930s.
One object beautifully sums up David Suchet's Hercule Poirot. The tiny "lapel
pin vase", a metal brooch holding a cut-down flower, was present through
much of the 24 years of the series.
It is both a significant object from a particular story (The Chocolate Box), but
also an emblem of Poirot's character. The Belgian detective is meticulous - in
his detection, but also in his dress, in his groomed moustache and in his
immaculate modern (for the 1930s) flat.
"They had made a decision in the very early days that although the books run
over nearly 60 years that they would still set everything in the mid-1930s,"
says Jeff Tessler, production designer on Poirot from 2005.
A victim in The ABC Murders worked at the De La Warr Pavilion
A pantheon of modernist and Art Deco British buildings acted as backdrop to

a series of murders of the well-to-do.
The Burgh Island Hotel, reached at high tide by a distinctive "sea tractor", was
the setting for Evil Under the Sun. The celebrated De La Warr Pavilion in
Bexhill-on-Sea appeared in the ABC Murders. The Midland Hotel in
Morecambe, built in the Streamline Moderne style, appeared in and was
mentioned by name in Double Sin.
The Midland, a haunt of Coco Chanel, Sir Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward, featured in Double Sin
Joldwynds, a modernist house in Surrey, featured in more than one show. The
episode King of Clubs uses both High and Over House in Amersham, Bucks,
and also the iconic Hoover building in west London. Other stark white
locations include St Anne's Court in Chertsey.
Then there's Poirot's flat. Given as "Whitehaven Mansions", it's actually Florin
Court in Charterhouse Square, Clerkenwell, in central London.
Poirot's fictional home Whitehaven Mansions (left) and a scene from King of Clubs
There have actually been two flats. Pre-2005, it was pale and elegant - glass
bookshelves with a semi-circle motif, chrome tubular leather seated dinner
chairs looking rather like Mies van der Rohe's MR10s and so on.
Then in 2005 Tessler changed the feel completely. "His first apartment was
quite white and stark. Eight years ago we moved him upstairs. I built a bigger
apartment for him. Instead of the black and white Art Deco, I made it more
continental. Partly because he is Belgian, we wanted a warm look - a lot more
French and Belgian Art Deco, richer and more striking.
"We used a lot of English designed pottery from the period, people like Keith
Murray, but also a lot of French Art Deco figurines and furniture."
Those close to the show note that the look in the earlier series was technically
not Art Deco.
"We tried not to be anachronistic," producer Brian Eastman said in a recent

interview. "And the set was 30s modern, not actually Art Deco, because
Agatha Christie had explained in a profile of Poirot that Art Deco was too
flamboyant for him."
But whether Art Deco or modernist, all most viewers would have picked up
was the nostalgic opulence, perfect for escapist Sunday night telly. The flat
was both luxurious and a reflection of Poirot's personality.
Inside Poirot's second Whitehaven Mansions

apartment
previous slide next slide
"People understand that it is fiction, it is drama - it's a more extreme example

than you might find anywhere in an English apartment," says Tessler.
"Everything in it has to reflect Poirot's obsession. The furniture is square
because he hated curves. We were very careful in the design of the thing to
reflect those obsessions."
Part of Three Act Tragedy was set at Eltham Palace
For the last five years, fan Eirik Dragsund has been painstakingly rewatching
the series for his blog.
"There is a clock on the mantelpiece [with what looks like a silver fox or dog on
top]," Dragsund notes. "David Suchet found it in an antique shop and bought it
for the series."
The purchase of the clock made sense as it reflected an episode from the
books where Poirot had won a bet with a French detective, Dragsund notes.
In the later years of Poirot, the action often moved to country houses, notes
Tessler, and away from modernist and Art Deco settings. "[But] we did make a
decision whenever we were in London to try and keep some of the 30s feel."
So the production team used locations like Freemasons Hall and the Palm
Court at the Sheraton hotel in Park Lane.
Poirot continues to be a reference point for any fans of Art Deco. Interior
designer Jeremy Grove, of Sibley Grove, who has just finished an Art Deco-
themed ballroom in Saudi Arabia, admits having used the show in "mood
boards" - collections of images that demonstrate a look or feel to a client - in
the past.
Grove appreciates the styling of the show. "They got their locations really spot
on," he says, noting the example of Eltham Palace, the interiors of which were
used in the episodes Three Act Tragedy and Death on the Nile. Deco themes
are still regularly used by designers and manufacturers, he explains. "It is still
more decorative than super-contemporary stuff. It's all straight lines and
geometry."
Tessler agrees the show may have magnified interest in Art Deco and
modernist furniture. "It was hugely influential. There was definitely a renewed
interest in Art Deco."
And perhaps the most important part of the design of the show was that it
helped Suchet build up the character. "There are things in his apartment that
are important to David Suchet - a wonderful verdigris antelope head on his
desk. That's always been there," says Tessler.
They were among the objects that made him feel at home.
Christie was inspired to write And Then There Were None at Burgh Island, which featured in Evil Under
the Sun
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7/27/23, 3:23 PM Goodbye to the splendid 1930s world of Poirot - BBC News

Goodbye to the splendid 1930s world of

The fox clock on the mantelpiece was bought by David Suchet

A victim in The ABC Murders worked at the De La Warr Pavilion

A pantheon of modernist and Art Deco British buildings acted as backdrop to

"We tried not to be anachronistic," producer Brian Eastman said in a recent

Inside Poirot's second Whitehaven Mansions

previous slide next slide

"People understand that it is fiction, it is drama - it's a more extreme example

Part of Three Act Tragedy was set at Eltham Palace

Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

Captive Niger president defiant after coup

Ukraine's Western armour struggles against Russian defences

Sinéad O'Connor's death not treated as suspicious

Sinéad O'Connor obituary: A talent How a diplomat's downfall leaves China

Ukraine's Western armour struggles How Sinéad O'Connor recorded Nothing

Can India become a global chip

Elsewhere on the BBC

The film that has divided the US

1 Sinéad O'Connor's death not treated as suspicious

2 Ukraine's Western armour struggles against Russian defences

3 Singapore to execute first woman in almost 20 years

4 Captive Niger president defiant after coup

5 Girl missing for nearly four years turns up safe

6 Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor dies aged 56

7 Aliens bring a divided US Congress together

8 Kim Jong Un shows off missiles to Russia's Shoigu

9 Colorado family die trying to live 'off the grid'

10 Prince Harry set for court showdown with The Sun

BBC News Services

Get news alerts

Contact BBC News

Home Sport Worklife Future Music Weather

News Reel Travel Culture TV Sounds

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