Hercule Poirot Timeline

© ITV
1870s:
Hercule Poirot born (could be earlier or later, it depends on how old you want him to be!).
 “In context, Poirot seems to be a man in his late fifties or early sixties when he arrives in England and somewhere in his mid-eighties in Curtain, his last case.”
(Anne Hart’s excellent biography, published in 1997 – The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot, p.4).
But remember: this is based on the actual novels and short stories – NOT the TV series.

Personally, I think it's quite evident that the producers of the TV series have tried to correct the mistake Christie admitted to several times; that of having made Poirot too old in his first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In fact, I believe the producers have envisioned him as probably around his mid-40s when he arrives in England and around his early 30s or late 20s in his case as a 'young' policeman (see later in the timeline), The Chocolate Box. In other words, Poirot would be in his late 50s or early 60s in his TV heyday, 1936.

Of course, this is all wild speculation. But I have, nevertheless, not been able to locate a single piece of evidence to suggest that the TV series follows the same aging of the character as Christie does. Personally, I think this is a wise move.

Early 1900s:
Poirot is a ‘young’ police officer in the Belgian police force. He investigates The Chocolate Box.


© ITV
ca.1910-1914:
Poirot becomes head of the police force in Belgium. He has to leave during ‘the Great War’.
“I also know what it’s like to come to a new country and to know no one (…). I was head of the police in Belgium. But then came the Great War. I was forced to leave. I came to England, to the village of Styles St. Mary. But it was a sad and painful time for me so far from my family and my home (…). I’ve had a good fortune, my talent it has been recognized. It is reported that I am the most famous detective in England”
Poirot to Countess Vera Rossakoff in The Double Clue.
 
© ITV

Interestingly, Poirot does not mention having retired from the Belgian police force, only that he was 'head of the police'. This, I would argue, supports my theory that TV-Poirot is younger than Book-Poirot.
 
1917:
Poirot lives in Styles St. Mary as a Belgian refugee. He solves The Mysterious Affair at Styles.




© ITV
ca. 1920-1932:
Poirot works as a private detective in London. It is necessary to imagine that he has had more cases than Christie actually wrote, since the episodes of the ITV series only (or mostly, in my chronology) take place in the 1930s.
 “Since I have a first-hand knowledge of most of his cases, it has been suggested to me that I select some of the most interesting and place them on record” (Hart 1997:159)

Hastings's introduction to the first collection of short stories, from Anne Hart's The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot.
Notice the word 'some' - Hastings has chosen specific cases out of a larger range of cases, enabling the possibility that TV-Poirot has had several cases in the early 1920s not recorded in the TV series chronology.

During this time period, I imagine Poirot sharing rooms with Hastings in the early years (as in the books), possibly in 14 Farraway Street. Then, in the late 20s (around 1928?), he and Hastings move into Whitehaven Mansions and he acquires his secretary, Miss Lemon.

1932-1933:
Poirot’s absurd retirement to King’s Abbot and the vegetable marrows, possibly from July 1932 to May 1933. He solves The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.


© ITV
1933-1936:
Poirot resumes his work as a private detective, with Hastings and Miss Lemon by his side.
Mid-1936: Hastings meets Bella Duveen while he and Poirot solve Murder on the Links. I imagine it to take some time (about six months?) until the couple move to their newly acquired ranch in Argentina (see 'The Hastings Storyline').

1937-1939:
Hastings has left for Argentina with Bella Duveen. Following Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Poirot decides to go travelling for about six months, visiting for instance Lord Boynton's archeological dig in Syria (Appointment with Death) and Nice (Mystery of the Blue Train). He has entered one of his temporary states of semi-retirement (see Anne Hart's biography) and consequently rents out his flat for these months and grants Miss Lemon paid leave. When in London, he stays at The Savoy or The Park Lane Hotel (see Five Little Pigs and Mystery of the Blue Train and Anne Hart's biography). In June, having accepted the irresistable Crale case, Poirot re-establishes himself in Whitehaven Mansions. The final boxes of Miss Lemon's filing system are returned by the beginning of Lord Edgware Dies

Poirot is now no longer a private detective, but a consulting detective, accepting cases only from friends and associates, and cases he finds particularly interesting, is charmed into or stumbles over. 

Around August 1937, Poirot moves out of his old flat and into a new one in the same building (ref. Cards on the Table). The building has been redecorated and restructured following significant structural alterations to the flats (ref. book version of (The Clocks). Miss Lemon, so distressed by the disarranged filing system (Lord Edgware Dies) puts together a mini-version of her system for Poirot's new office as a leaving present. She retires or quits. Consequently, Poirot acquires his manservant George (ref. Taken at the Flood). 1939 is as far as we can be certain the TV series has come in terms of chronology. (The rest of the timeline is based on my guesses as to where the series might go in its final adaptations.)



1946:
Poirot solves The Labours of Hercules. He retires for good. At some point he moves into Styles Court, which has now become a guest house.

Late 1940s or early 1950s:
Poirot solves Curtain at Styles Court. He dies.

28 comments:

  1. I love it thanks so much for all the information about Poirot TV series.

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  2. Fascinating piece of work. You must be a truly devoted Poirot fan! I've often pondered chronology issues and how the TV series relates to the books.

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  3. Thank you! You might also want to have a look at this blog post I did for my other blog - a chronology overview: http://investigatingpoirot.blogspot.com/2013/06/agatha-christies-poirot-1936-time-warp.html

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  4. What a marvellous site. Congratulations.

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  5. That's a big question! I've written extensively about it on my other blog, Investigating Agatha Christie's Poirot (see link above to the right). In short, I think the mood change worked for the darker novels they adapted in the later years. I was also in favour of not including Japp, Lemon and Hastings in adaptations they didn't appear in, because the dynamic wasn't working as well in some of the feature-length adaptations (e.g. Evil under the Sun, Lord Edgware Dies). At the same time, I'm not entirely pleased with some of the changes in the later adaptations (Appointment with Death is possibly one of the only Poirot adaptations I simply can't stand...). So I can easily see the pros and cons of the shift between series 8 and 9.

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  6. Hello, appropos of Japp. In chronology terms, how can Japps promotion from chief inspector to deputy commissioner within a time frame of 2-3 years be explained?

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  7. First let me say thank you for attempting to lay this out. I have not yet read any of the books so have throughly enjoyed the tv adaptations. I missed Japp and the gang when phased out but carried on none the less. As a writer and actor I study as much as enjoy all adaptive works and so to that end I make a very STRONG recommendation to all fans of novels.

    If your favourite story gets adapted there are a couple points to consider when deciding to watch it come to life before your eyes.
    1. Be prepared that your imagination MAY not jibe with the adapters. Be open to a new look.
    2. Due to budget it may not be as slick as your minds eye.
    3. Is it a movie or a mini-series? this is key. A 2-3 hour adaptation will NEVER do justice to a novel you have already read as it has considerable time constraints to deal with. Therefore the screenwriter has to become the ultimate streamline editor of the story. Whereas a mini-series (tai-pan and Noble House) can keep it all in for the most part and satisfy the reader watching the story now adapted. They may even expand upon the plan and go places not originally considered, with the original writer on board. (Game of Thrones)
    4. (And this is the most satisfying) SEE THE ADAPTATION FIRST. If you've already read it then give it a few years before venturing the look. You can't be disappointed they left things out you loved if you never knew they were missing.(or forgotten) Therefore you will almost be certain to enjoy the novel even more when you sink into the imagery now created for you. You can take the characters into places the author wanted to show originally, and now it's like watching the super extended DVD edition in your mind. Filing in blanks or learning more about the characters back story that the screen writer had no time to do. You know... our limited attention spans tha prevent a standard 5 hour film to be produced.

    Try that from now on and I promise you will never hate a screen adaptation again.

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  8. personally i never understood why Christie worried about Poirot's age. Fictional characters do not have to age like real people. Look at Jeeves and bertie wooster for instance - they never aged in all the years Wodehouse wrote about them.

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  9. Also the TV series made very little sense because it continued to be the 1930s for twenty years, which was absurd, especially as many of the later books are vey definitely set post-WW2. the later episodes also took far too many liberties with theplots, often altering them completely. Some of them are dreadufl, cards on the Table for instance was ghastly, and Appointment with Death.

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  10. i think when they made the TV adaptation of Mysterious affair at Styles, they should have left out the WW1 references. it makes you wonder what they were doing in the intervening 18 yeqrs until the nesxt episodes, since they don'ts eem to have aged very much in that time.

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  11. You state that "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" happened between 1932 and 1933. I would just like to point out that the taxi (DNL66) used in this episode was first registered in 1937.

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  12. If Poirot were 40 in 1917, he could die at 90 in 1967. That would give him time to investigate The Third Girl in the early to mid 1960s, which would explain the young girl wearing boots, a short skirt and straight hair.

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    Replies
    1. But in Curtain, Hastings asks Poirot if he’s ‘hard up’ and mentions investments being affected by the war. Would he have mentioned that if the war were more than 20 years ago?

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  15. I enjoyed the entire masterpiece POIROT series. I love good mysteries. Poirot like Sherlock Holmes was traditional and conservative.
    I found Curtain inconsistent with the character Christie built up and rewrote it to my liking.
    David Suchet remains the ultimate Poirot to me, as Basil Rathbone remains the ultimate Holmes.
    Article most interesting and feeds my i terest in both mystery writing and theatre.

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  19. According to Wikipedia he was still around in the 60s..? " in Third Girl (1966) he is forced into contact with the smart set of Chelsea youths. In the growing drug and pop culture of the sixties, he proves himself once again but has become heavily reliant on other investigators (especially the private investigator, Mr. Goby) who provide him with the clues that he can no longer gather for himself.

    You're too old. Nobody told me you were so old. I really don't want to be rude but – there it is. You're too old. I'm really very sorry.

    — Norma Restarick to Poirot in Third Girl, Chapter 1[49]"

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  20. It confirms here that in Third Girl 'the world has entered the swinging sixties' https://www.agathachristie.com/en/stories/third-girl

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  21. I just read "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", and Poirot states that his good friend Hastings is in Argentine at that time. So the timeline is not quite correct

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  22. Poirot from books and Poirot from TV series are two different people.

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  23. The darker Poirot movies were awful :(

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