History Literature / HerculePoirot

** Two coincidental, unrelated cases in ''Literature/Hercule PoirotsChristmas'': [[spoiler:among the guests who come to visit elderly Simeon Lee for the holidays are Stephen Farr, son of Lee's old business partner in South Africa whom he betrayed; and Pilar Estravados, Lee's Spanish-born granddaughter, on her first visit to England as civil war breaks out in Spain. Simeon is murdered, but both impostors end up being {{Red Herring}}s. A telegraph reveals that the real Stephen Farr is dead -- Stephen's real name is Stephen Grant, a friend of the real Farr but also, as he explains, the illegitimate son of Lee himself, who came to England intending to confront his father not only for what he did to the Grants but for his own abandonment. Pilar, meanwhile, is actually Conchita Lopez, the real Pilar's maid, traveling with Pilar through wartorn Spain when the latter was killed by a bomb. Conchita seized on the opportunity to masquerade as her mistress, enjoying a brief respite in a wealthy home far from the war -- only to find herself trapped by her own deceit, unable to reveal the truth without making herself even more of a suspect in the murder. In the end, both are cleared of suspicion, and Stephen asks Conchita to come back with him to South Africa so that the two of them can be married.]]

* MistakenForDying: An intentional example in "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb". A young man commits suicide, calling himself a lepar in his note. It turns out that this was not hyperbole: he really did think he had leprosy. This was a deliberate misdiagnosis from a doctor who stood to gain from his will. All he had was a harmless rash.

* ''Third Girl'' (1966)

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* ''Black Coffee'' (1930) -- original Christie stage play, received a licensed novelization by Charles Osborne in 1998

* DetectivePatsy: Poirot is far too clever to fall for this, but occasionally he despairs of Hastings. Several stories have the twist ending that the apparent victim or bystander who first called Poirot in actually committed the crime, and wanted Poirot there so the police would assume if he couldn't solve it, no-one could. This despite the fact that Poirot's cases get published in-universe so they should know that ''this never works''.

* ''Dead Man's Folly'' (1956)

Mystery writer Creator/SophieHannah was officially licensed by the Christie estate to write Poirot novels and has written four since 2014.

* Creator/PeterUstinov played Poirot five times between 1978 and 1988.

* ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|1978}}'' (1978). First Peter Ustinov appearance as Poirot.
* ''Literature/EvilUnderTheSun'' (1982).
* ''Series/{{Poirot}}'' by ITV (1989-2013). Creator/DavidSuchet's portrayal of Poirot is considered as the definitive one, to the point of deserving to be this page's picture. Amusingly, he first played Inspector Japp in the 1985 adaptation of ''Literature/LordEdgwareDies''.

* ''Murder on the Orient Express'', 2001 TV film starring Creator/AlfredMolina as Poirot.
* Creator/KennethBranagh started his own cinematic interpretation, directing his films and starring as Poirot:

** ''Film/{{Murder on the Orient Express|2017}}'' (2017)
** ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2022}}'' (2022)
* '' Series/TheABCMurders'' (2018). Creator/JohnMalkovich took on the role for the Creator/{{BBC}} in 2018, playing a ''bearded'' Poirot.

Fastidiously neat, we would today diagnose him with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive_compulsive_personality_disorder OCPD]].

** ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2021}}'' (2021)

* HaveAGayOldTime: "Gay" and "queer" are frequently used in their old meanings of "happy" and "peculiar".
** In ''Hercule Poirot's Christmas'', one of the supporting characters is from Spain, and frequently wonders why the English don't seem to be "gay" at Christmastime.

** Two coincidental, unrelated cases in ''Hercule Poirot's Christmas'': [[spoiler: among the guests who come to visit elderly Simeon Lee for the holidays are Stephen Farr, son of Lee's old business partner in South Africa whom he betrayed; and Pilar Estravados, Lee's Spanish-born granddaughter, on her first visit to England as civil war breaks out in Spain. Simeon is murdered, but both impostors end up being {{Red Herring}}s. A telegraph reveals that the real Stephen Farr is dead -- Stephen's real name is Stephen Grant, a friend of the real Farr but also, as he explains, the illegitimate son of Lee himself, who came to England intending to confront his father not only for what he did to the Grants but for his own abandonment. Pilar, meanwhile, is actually Conchita Lopez, the real Pilar's maid, traveling with Pilar through wartorn Spain when the latter was killed by a bomb. Conchita seized on the opportunity to masquerade as her mistress, enjoying a brief respite in a wealthy home far from the war -- only to find herself trapped by her own deceit, unable to reveal the truth without making herself even more of a suspect in the murder. In the end, both are cleared of suspicion, and Stephen asks Conchita to come back with him to South Africa so that the two of them can be married.]]

* ''Literature/Hercule PoirotsChristmas'' (1938)

* ''Hercule Poirot's Christmas'' (1938)

* ''Black Coffee'' (1998) (Novelisation by Charles Osborne of Christie's original 1930 stage play)

* HaveAGayOldTime: "Gay" and "queer" are frequently used in their old meanings of "happy" and "peculiar". In ''Hercule Poirot's Christmas'', one of the supporting characters is from Spain, and frequently wonders why the English don't seem to be "gay" at Christmastime.

** ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2020}}'' (2020)

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[GratuitousFrench Bonsoir, mon ami.]]'']]

* CatchPhrase: OncePerEpisode, Poirot will invoked his "little grey cells". [[BorrowedCatchphrase If not, someone else will]].