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PRODUCTION NOTES
***The information contained herein is strictly embargoed from all press
use, non commercial publication, or syndication
until Monday 7th December 2009***
INTRODUCTION
Page 3
SYNOPSIS
Page 4
CAST LIST
Page 5
DAVID SUCHET IS HERCULE POIROT
Page 6
TIM CURRY IS LORD GREVILLE BOYNTON
Page 8
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INTRODUCTION
In the heart of the Moroccan desert,
Hercule Poirot has an APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH...
David Suchet returns to his most famous role in Appointment With Death, which sees the
celebrated sleuth tackle a murder under the North African sun.
In this latest adaptation Suchet is joined by Tim Curry, John Hannah, Mark Gatiss, Cheryl
Campbell, Elizabeth McGovern, Christina Cole, Paul Freeman, Beth Goddard, Angela
Pleasence, Emma Cunniffe, Tom Riley, Christian McKay and Zoe Boyle.
Appointment With Death was filmed in Casablanca and El Jadida in Morocco, as well as the
UK. This is the first time Poirot has been filmed outside of Britain since The Mystery of the
Blue Train was filmed on the French Riviera in 2005.
Syria, 1937: Hercule Poirot is one of several people present at an archaeological dig to find the
skull of John the Baptist, led by the exuberant Lord Boynton (Curry) and his loyal son Leonard
(Gatiss), the enterprise having been financed by Boynton's rich, rude and over-bearing
American wife (Campbell).
Only his Lordship has any love for his wife, so when she is found stabbed to death one
blisteringly hot afternoon, Poirot has more than his fair share of suspects to interrogate...
Appointment With Death is directed by Ashley Pearce (Afterlife, The Vice), adapted by Guy
Andrews (Lost In Austen, Prime Suspect) and the series producer is Karen Thrussell.
The Poirot stories are co-produced by ITV Productions and Agatha Christie Ltd, a Chorion
company, and US network WGBH. Michele Buck and Damien Timmer, of Mammoth Screen,
Phil Clymer of Chorion, and Rebecca Eaton of WGBH, are executive producers of Poirot, with
David Suchet as associate producer.
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SYNOPSIS
Beneath the unforgiving sun of the Syrian Desert, the eccentric English archaeologist Lord
Greville Boynton (Tim Curry) and his son Leonard (Mark Gatiss) are seeking the final resting
place of the skull of John the Baptist.
On the verge of this incredible discovery they are joined by Lord Boynton’s second wife, the
dominating, fabulously wealthy American Lady Boynton (Cheryl Campbell), shadowed as ever
by their adopted children – devastatingly handsome Raymond, put-upon Carol and their
troubled younger sister Jinny.
Holidaying in Syria, the world famous detective Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) is irresistibly
drawn to the excavation, but this is soon over-shadowed when Lady Boynton is found
murdered under the roasting sun and her financial empire is completely wiped out...
Commissioned to find her killer by his old friend Colonel Carbury (Paul Freeman), Poirot soon
realises there is no shortage of candidates. Besides her much maligned family, the dig has
attracted an unusual group of travellers. These include the witty psychiatrist Dr Gerard (John
Hannah), the laconic Jefferson Cope (Christian McKay), the beautiful and resourceful Dr Sarah
King (Christina Cole) and the unconventional travel writer Dame Celia Westholme (Elizabeth
McGovern).
As Poirot’s little grey cells begin to make sense of the case, the mystery suddenly deepens.
Jinny (Zoe Boyle) and Sister Agnieszka (Beth Goddard), a Polish nun on pilgrimage, are
attacked in the night and the Boynton family Nanny (Angela Pleasence) suffers a devastating
breakdown.
Each of the suspects has a motive for killing the despised Lady Boynton, but only the little
Belgian detective knows which of them arranged her Appointment with Death...
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CAST LIST
Hercule Poirot
David Suchet
Dr Gerard
John Hannah
Dr Sarah King
Christina Cole
Lord Greville Boynton
Tim Curry
Colonel Carbury
Paul Freeman
Leonard
Mark Gatiss
Carol
Emma Cunniffe
Raymond
Tom Riley
Dame Celia Westholme
Elizabeth McGovern
Lady Boynton
Cheryl Campbell
Jinny
Zoe Boyle
Jefferson Cope
Christian McKay
Nanny
Angela Pleasence
Sister Angieszka
Beth Goddard
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DAVID SUCHET IS HERCULE POIROT
“I can say, quite truthfully, that that particular location was one of the most extraordinary I have
ever filmed in for Poirot. We were filming in this fort out in the wilderness of Morocco,
surrounded by red sandy desert, for most of the film. There were some hawks and their
fledglings just learning to fly and they were circling all the time we were filming...it was the most
remarkable atmosphere. I imagined what it must have been like centuries ago when it was an
active fort and there were battles and blood...it was quite extraordinary to do a film there.”
“I always like it when Poirot goes away because he’s a bit of a fish out of water when he leaves
London... even Hampstead is a long way for him! When he finds himself in this exotic place he
is completely out of his own comfort zone, brushing all the dust off his trousers and having to
travel in awful lorries and carts... That’s one of the things I love about this film, the fact that it
takes Poirot out of that comfort zone.”
“With Agatha Christie, it is very, very easy to place her in a world that is very comfortable to us.
We forget that when she was writing, especially in those early days, she was producing crime
fiction which was totally unique for her day. There’d been Sherlock Holmes but there had never
been anything like this. It was like JK Rowling’s popularity today: there were queues outside the
book stores; people wouldn’t let others look over their shoulder when they read the books on
public transport and people were sworn not to tell others the ends of the stories. Although her
stories were serious, she had the ability to have fun in them, poking fun at the English upper
class and creating characters like Poirot with his strange characteristics.”
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David Suchet continues…
“All of that is interwoven around a plot that will take the reader completely out of their comfort
zone and constantly remind them that they are dealing with crime. We are not just talking about
thefts and robberies but murder: in fact, we are talking about children being tortured in
Appointment With Death. Agatha Christie is not always comfortable: Agatha Christie can be
very gritty, very tense and very macabre. But always with her knowing that her books would be
read across the board of generations, from the young to the middle aged to the very old.
Agatha Christie, if read properly and if we do the films properly, should take you out of your
comfort zone.”
“We had a wonderful cast on Appointment With Death. Paul Freeman I worked with in my first
job in 1969 in the Gateway Theatre, Chester: he played Beckett in the play. I’ve always been a
fan of his work. Tim Curry I adore...to be with him on the set was like working with one of my
own idols, and yet he was so thrilled to be on the set with me too! That sounds very theatrical
and luvvy but it wasn’t – we are just huge admirers of each other. And I’m a huge fan of John
Hannah. I am so flattered when so many well know artists want to be in Poirot.”
“I can appreciate and understand the adverse reaction to the fact that we have moved so far
away from the original book, and I can assure fans that it is not something any of us would do
wilfully. However, sometimes there are instances where the adaptation from novel to film does
not really work and so the plots have to be broadened. And, in broadening the plots, other
characters are sometimes introduced by the writer. I do hope that those who see Appointment
With Death will agree with me with that it’s still very much in the spirit of Agatha Christie, still
very much in the spirit of Appointment with Death as written and Poirot is still Poirot: I will
always, wherever I’m put, be faithful to him as created by Agatha. And so I hope that everyone
will enjoy what I consider to be a very exciting, very dark and very macabre tale of a wonderful
book and one of the greatest Poirot films we’ve ever made.”
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TIM CURRY IS LORD GREVILLE BOYNTON
“I live in America and watch Poirot all the time - it’s my major home sickness placebo! I’m a
huge fan of David Suchet’s and when I was in the UK doing Spamalot, I told the Poirot
producer that I’d love to do one sometime.”
“It is like being part of an extraordinary history, being in an Agatha Christie adaptation. Of
course we all grew up with Christie: she is the great master of mystery writing. So if I had been
asked to play the boot boy, I’d still have been happy to show up! Not only are they great stories
but it’s nice to climb into a dinner jacket once in a while. Agatha Christie’s husband was an
archaeologist so we looked at photographs of him [for inspiration]. It also turns out that there
are a few old friends in this episode - Cheryl Campbell is playing my wife and the last time we
worked together we were Cinderella and Buttons at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre in 1970.”
“I went to Morocco in my gap year, which is a very long time ago. I then went back when I was
doing the Muppet Show Treasure Island. I went in early to pre-record the songs and had about
thirteen days before I started filming so I went to Marrakesh. I couldn’t believe how much it had
changed: in 1965 everyone wore djellaba and when I went back to Marrakesh in the late 1990s
everyone was wearing Calvin Klein t-shirts! Apart from that I don’t think it has changed an awful
lot. I love Morocco - I think it is a magical country.”
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