The Humor, Heart and Loyalty of Hercule Poirot in One of My Life’s Passions
He complains about English food, refuses to wear a costume and insists he has retired. Somehow, that only makes audiences love him more.
Andrew Balzano’s One of My Life’s Passions: Classics and Mysteries treats Hercule Poirot as more than a brilliant mind. In his notes on David Suchet’s long-running series, Balzano returns again and again to the scenes that reveal Poirot’s personality: his vanity, his precision, his dry wit and his deep loyalty to the country he has made his home.
Those moments, Balzano suggests, are why the series rewards repeat viewing. The solution may be the same the second time. The pleasure of spending an hour in Poirot’s company is not.
The English Have No Cuisine
The Yellow Iris has grown into one of Balzano’s favorites, and food is a big reason why. The episode opens with Poirot’s simple breakfast, a fruit preserve spread on bite-sized crackers lined up symmetrically, the only way he would allow it. When Hastings asks whether anything in English cooking pleases him, Poirot delivers a cutting verdict on overcooked meat and inedible cheese, adding that the day the English invent their own wines is the day he returns to Belgium.
The case moves from a restaurant in Argentina to a restaurant of the same name in London, where Poirot is determined to prevent a second murder. Afterward, late and hungry, he sits outdoors in the cold, eating fish and chips from a food truck while Hastings declares there is nothing like English cuisine anywhere in the world. Poirot is coy, but before the episode ends, he is devouring every bite.
Detective Retired
Double Sin finds Poirot announcing that he has retired. Miss Lemon dryly observes that he simply has not had an interesting case for five minutes. While Hastings tries to solve the theft of valuable miniatures, Miss Lemon uses Poirot’s own advice to find lost keys in the office.
The highlight comes when Poirot learns that Chief Inspector Japp will speak at a benefit. Worried that Japp might claim his cases, Poirot slips in wearing a disguise, only to hear Japp praise him as the greatest detective he has ever encountered. When a clipping about the speech falls from Poirot’s pocket, he insists he was interested in the other side. Hastings turns it over and reads an advertisement for learning to speak French like a Frenchman.
- Can a great detective also be the funniest person in the room?
- What does a character reveal about himself when he thinks no one is watching?
Costumes, Pies and Chocolate
Humor turns up throughout Balzano’s favorites. In The Affair at the Victory Ball, Hastings is disappointed that Poirot has not worn a costume to a party where the whole point is to go as someone famous. Poirot’s reply is a single word: exactly. In The Dream, a businessman known as the King of Pies sits at the center of the case. When Hastings asks whether the pies are any good, Poirot answers that they are horrible, but there are a great many of them.
The Chocolate Box offers something rarer: a look back at Poirot’s earlier life on the Belgian police force. The episode brings Japp to Belgium to receive a high honor from Poirot’s government, and the story travels back to the days when Poirot still answered to a superior.
A Gentleman Loyal to Two Countries
For all his teasing about England, Poirot is never anything less than devoted to it. In The Kidnapped Prime Minister, he is totally driven to bring the prime minister home safely. In How Does Your Garden Grow?, he is the guest of honor at the Chelsea Flower Show, with a flower named after him, before Miss Lemon joins him to investigate a poisoning. Balzano notes that poison was a signature of Agatha Christie’s mystery writing.
That is the balance the series strikes so well, and the balance Balzano captures in his book: a proud Belgian who grumbles about the food and still becomes one of England’s finest defenders.
He may criticize the cooking…
He may refuse the costume…
He never fails the country he calls home…
In One of My Life’s Passions: Classics and Mysteries, Hercule Poirot’s charm is as memorable as his genius!
