Story changes were often made to present female characters in a more sympathetic or heroic light, at odds with Christie's characteristic gender neutrality.

Recurrent motifs in the additions included drug use, sex, abortion, homosexuality, and a tendency toward more visceral imagery. The humour of the earlier series was downplayed with each episode being presented as serious drama, and an undercurrent of postmodernism saw the introduction of gritty elements not present in the Christie stories being adapted. Michele Buck and Damien Timmer, who both went on to form Mammoth Screen, were behind the revamping of the series. The episodes aired from 2003 featured a radical shift in tone from the previous series.

Exton and Eastman left Poirot after 2001, when they began work on Rosemary & Thyme. Together, they wrote and produced the first eight series. All of Series 4 and all episodes from Series 6 onwards were feature-length.Ĭlive Exton in partnership with producer Brian Eastman adapted the pilot. The first feature-length episode was ' Peril at End House' in Series 2. Short stories were mostly adapted as 50 minute episodes while novels were made into 100 minute or 'feature-length' episodes.

Episodes Main article: List of Agatha Christie's Poirot episodesĪ total of 70 episodes in 13 series were made, beginning with ' The Adventure of the Clapham Cook', first aired 8 January 1989 and ending with 'Curtain', broadcast on 13 November 2013.

Poirot tv series