Sir David Suchet is re-creating the Queen of Crime’s grand tour and discovers she was a secret surfer!
Ed Grenby - 15 May 2025
Soho Studios/Two Rivers Media
You’ve previously described Hercule Poirot as “a dear friend”, but what about Agatha Christie? Should Mrs Suchet be worried?
No, I don’t think so! Sadly, I never met Agatha – though there was part of me when I was doing Poirot that was glad I didn’t, because she was famously very uncomplimentary about anyone who played her characters. In fact, the nearest I got to a compliment was from her daughter. I visited the family a lot in the early days, and after a couple of sherries she said, ‘I think I have to confess. I do believe my mother would have been pleased with your interpretation’. I became quite emotional.
It doesn’t sound like Agatha would have made a fun travelling companion for you…
Well, that’s her reputation as an elderly lady: rather severe and unsociable. But in 1922, when she was 31, she set out on a world tour with her husband, who was part of a delegation to encourage countries to bring their produce to the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. And following in her footsteps introduced me to an Agatha I didn’t know: courageous, independent, vivacious, who loved playing the piano onboard ship – and even surfing!
Agatha Christie was a surfer girl?
Yes, her passion for it started when they visited South Africa, but they went on to Hawaii and really embraced it there. In the 1920s it was just becoming popular, but not among women, so she was brave to go for it.
You’re only 79! It was tempting, but my contract says I’m not allowed to do dangerous sports while filming! There was plenty else to do in Hawaii, though. I adore chocolate, so I went to a cocoa plantation – it was the first time I’d ever seen a cacao bean. Opened up, it looked like something from ET!
So you brought back a suitcase of Hawaiian chocolate rather than South African wine?
Oh, I’d definitely take the chocolate. I enjoyed seeing the Constantia vineyards in South Africa, and tasting the same wines that Agatha would have done, but the most extraordinary thing I saw there was the Big Hole diamond mine, in Kimberley, though mining has stopped now. In fact I was walking along in a completely barren place, when I passed a local woman and her child, and then from behind me I heard her cry, ‘I don’t believe it!’
You were mistaken for Richard Wilson?
Ha ha, no. But Poirot was so international, with more than 700 million viewers in over 100 countries, that on a deserted street in South Africa, I was asked for an autograph and it was the most extraordinary one I’ve ever signed.
You must have met a lot of interesting characters…
Yes. Spending time with New Zealand’s Maori was fascinating. I got the hongi nose kiss, and they introduced me to pounamu stone, which is an important part of their spiritual beliefs. In fact, they carved one into the shape of a whale’s tooth for me, because I was travelling and communicating, and they say the whale is the greatest traveller and communicator on our planet. It was one of the most emotional moments of my trip.
Any unpleasant bits?
In our Australia episode, we visited Hobart in Tasmania, which was a penal colony, with women sent from England for petty crimes like stealing a loaf of bread – months on board ship, never to return. And we were looking at a wall there, and discovered a bit of hair between the bricks – a convict’s hair used as part of the mortar. It happened on camera, so you can see that I’m really disturbed by it.
Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer scenic train will be on a lot of readers’ bucket lists, and getting to do that was the most wonderful privilege. The landscape is such that I’d never witnessed anywhere else. Agatha herself went from Vancouver to Banff by train, and we stayed at the same spectacular castle of a hotel as her, the Fairmont Banff Springs.
Then the other highlight of Canada for me was going to the Prince of Wales’s ranch in Alberta. This was an earlier Prince – the ‘Mrs Simpson’ one – and he bought a ranch there that Agatha and the delegation visited. That’s how there ended up being a sculpture – in butter – of the Prince, on a horse, at the Empire Exhibition. But was I tempted to commission a butter sculpture of myself? I didn’t think anyone would want to see that…
Soho Studios/Two Rivers Media
You’ve previously described Hercule Poirot as “a dear friend”, but what about Agatha Christie? Should Mrs Suchet be worried?
No, I don’t think so! Sadly, I never met Agatha – though there was part of me when I was doing Poirot that was glad I didn’t, because she was famously very uncomplimentary about anyone who played her characters. In fact, the nearest I got to a compliment was from her daughter. I visited the family a lot in the early days, and after a couple of sherries she said, ‘I think I have to confess. I do believe my mother would have been pleased with your interpretation’. I became quite emotional.
It doesn’t sound like Agatha would have made a fun travelling companion for you…
Well, that’s her reputation as an elderly lady: rather severe and unsociable. But in 1922, when she was 31, she set out on a world tour with her husband, who was part of a delegation to encourage countries to bring their produce to the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. And following in her footsteps introduced me to an Agatha I didn’t know: courageous, independent, vivacious, who loved playing the piano onboard ship – and even surfing!
Agatha Christie was a surfer girl?
Yes, her passion for it started when they visited South Africa, but they went on to Hawaii and really embraced it there. In the 1920s it was just becoming popular, but not among women, so she was brave to go for it.
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And were you equally brave?
You’re only 79! It was tempting, but my contract says I’m not allowed to do dangerous sports while filming! There was plenty else to do in Hawaii, though. I adore chocolate, so I went to a cocoa plantation – it was the first time I’d ever seen a cacao bean. Opened up, it looked like something from ET!
So you brought back a suitcase of Hawaiian chocolate rather than South African wine?
Oh, I’d definitely take the chocolate. I enjoyed seeing the Constantia vineyards in South Africa, and tasting the same wines that Agatha would have done, but the most extraordinary thing I saw there was the Big Hole diamond mine, in Kimberley, though mining has stopped now. In fact I was walking along in a completely barren place, when I passed a local woman and her child, and then from behind me I heard her cry, ‘I don’t believe it!’
You were mistaken for Richard Wilson?
Ha ha, no. But Poirot was so international, with more than 700 million viewers in over 100 countries, that on a deserted street in South Africa, I was asked for an autograph and it was the most extraordinary one I’ve ever signed.
You must have met a lot of interesting characters…
Yes. Spending time with New Zealand’s Maori was fascinating. I got the hongi nose kiss, and they introduced me to pounamu stone, which is an important part of their spiritual beliefs. In fact, they carved one into the shape of a whale’s tooth for me, because I was travelling and communicating, and they say the whale is the greatest traveller and communicator on our planet. It was one of the most emotional moments of my trip.
Any unpleasant bits?
In our Australia episode, we visited Hobart in Tasmania, which was a penal colony, with women sent from England for petty crimes like stealing a loaf of bread – months on board ship, never to return. And we were looking at a wall there, and discovered a bit of hair between the bricks – a convict’s hair used as part of the mortar. It happened on camera, so you can see that I’m really disturbed by it.
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Could you recommend something more holidayish?
Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer scenic train will be on a lot of readers’ bucket lists, and getting to do that was the most wonderful privilege. The landscape is such that I’d never witnessed anywhere else. Agatha herself went from Vancouver to Banff by train, and we stayed at the same spectacular castle of a hotel as her, the Fairmont Banff Springs.
Then the other highlight of Canada for me was going to the Prince of Wales’s ranch in Alberta. This was an earlier Prince – the ‘Mrs Simpson’ one – and he bought a ranch there that Agatha and the delegation visited. That’s how there ended up being a sculpture – in butter – of the Prince, on a horse, at the Empire Exhibition. But was I tempted to commission a butter sculpture of myself? I didn’t think anyone would want to see that…