Hercule Poirot is officially stepping back onto the small screen.

For over a century, Agatha Christie’s eccentric, fastidious Belgian sleuth has stood as the gold standard of literary detection. Now, the BBC and BritBox are giving the character a fresh chapter with a brand-new television drama titled simply Hercule.

Currently filming on location in Liverpool, the six-part series aims to wind back the clock. It explores an earlier, emerging Poirot forging his career in interwar London, setting up his iconic partnership with Arthur Hastings and Inspector Japp, and matching wits with high-society killers.

With ten major cast additions just announced, here is everything you need to know about the upcoming series, its creative team, the Agatha Christie source material, and Poirot’s notable modern screen history.

The Cast: Rising Stars and British Screen Royalty

Taking on the monumental task of wearing the polished patent-leather shoes and waxed mustache is Edward Bluemel (My Lady Jane, Killing Eve, A Discovery of Witches). Bluemel plays a younger, sharper, and more energetic Hercule Poirot as he navigates the high-society salons of 1930s Britain.

The production recently expanded its ensemble with a massive wave of British acting talent:

• Toby Stephens (Black Sails, Die Another Day, Lost in Space)
• Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, Doc Martin)
• Ralf Little (Death in Paradise, The Royle Family)
• Omari Douglas (It’s a Sin)
• Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones)
• Tamsin Greig (Black Books, Episodes)
• James D’Arcy (Agent Carter, Oppenheimer)
• Henry Ashton (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder)
• Calvin Demba (The Rig)
• Phil Dunning

With such an eclectic ensemble of dramatic heavyweights and comedic performers, the show promises Christie’s signature blend of high-stakes parlor deceit and eccentric personality clashes.

Behind the Scenes: The Creative & Production Team

The series is produced by Mammoth Screen (the production house behind Poldark, Victoria, and several recent BBC Christie adaptations) alongside Agatha Christie Limited, which manages the literary estate of the Queen of Crime.

• Head Writer / Executive Producer:Benji Walters, who developed the adaptation for television.
• Lead Director / Executive Producer:Jonny Campbell (Eric, Westworld, Dracula), directing the opening two episodes.
• Additional Directors:Chanya Button (Whitstable Pearl) and Alrick Riley (Bridgerton, Death in Paradise), directing the subsequent blocks.
• Series Producer:Charlie Palmer (Doctor Who, Poldark).

The series is slated to air across six 60-minute episodes on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, with North American streaming handled exclusively by BritBox.

The Agatha Christie Source Material

Rather than stringing together isolated case-of-the-week puzzles, Hercule adapts three classic full-length Agatha Christie novels across two-part storylines:

1. Lord Edgware Dies (1933): The first confirmed adaptation of the run. A high-society actress seeks Poirot’s help to negotiate a divorce from her wealthy, eccentric husband. When Lord Edgware is discovered murdered with a knife to the neck, the actress has an unbreakable alibi, sparking an intricate game of theatrical disguises, impostors, and forged letters.
2. Peril at End House (1932): Poirot and Captain Hastings vacation on the Cornish coast, where they meet young Nick Buckley, an heiress who has miraculously survived a series of bizarre “accidents” (including a bullet grazing her sunhat). Poirot takes it upon himself to protect her from an unseen assassin before family greed strikes End House.
3. The Unrevealed Third Mystery: A final two-part mystery completing the initial six-episode arc.

Adapting Lord Edgware Dies and Peril at End House firmly plants the series in Poirot’s Golden Age, giving audiences the vintage banter between Poirot, Hastings, and Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Japp.

Poirot Through the Years: Notable Past Appearances

Stepping into Hercule Poirot’s shoes means carrying one of the richest legacies in screen history. Edward Bluemel follows in the footsteps of several iconic interpretations:

• David Suchet (Agatha Christie’s Poirot, ITV, 1989–2013): The definitive television Poirot. Suchet spent 24 years playing the detective, ultimately adapting every single major novel and short story featuring the character across 70 episodes, ending with Curse and Curtain in 2013.
• Kenneth Branagh (20th Century Studios Films, 2017–2023): On the big screen, Branagh introduced an action-capable, tragic, and extravagantly mustachioed Poirot to modern blockbuster audiences with Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Death on the Nile (2022), and the horror-tinged A Haunting in Venice (2023).
• John Malkovich (The ABC Murders, BBC, 2018): A darker, melancholic miniseries take written by Sarah Phelps, showing an aging Poirot haunted by his past during the rise of 1930s British fascism.
• The Classics (Albert Finney & Peter Ustinov): Albert Finney earned an Oscar nomination for the 1974 classic Murder on the Orient Express, while Peter Ustinov brought his warm, comic charm to beloved films like Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982).

With Hercule, the BBC and BritBox are looking to revitalize the franchise once again, blending the razor-sharp deduction of classic Christie with a modern, fresh-faced energy.

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