George (David Suchet) watches TV (Image: )
You don’t have to use many “little grey cells”, to realise that Sir David Suchet has an enormously happy marriage. The immensely popular Poirot star and his wife Sheila have been married for an astonishing 49 years, an extraordinary feat almost as long as his 55 years on stage and screen.
The actor reveals it was love at first sight the moment he set eyes on Sheila at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 1972, before adding that it took him some time to convince her to have dinner with him.
What is the secret of their success, then?
“In one word, laughter – that’s what’s kept us together,” declares David, 78, speaking exclusively to The Express, dressed in an impeccably dapper dark shirt and blazer teamed with grey slacks.
“Believe me, we’ve had ups and downs, like every couple. But we have stayed together because we can laugh through things and hold on to each other.”
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Actor David Suchet (2nd right) with son Robert (left), wife Sheila, and daughter Katherine (Image: PA Archive)
David, who has two children and four grandchildren, continues: “Going down the hill is no problem. It’s climbing the hills in life – that’s the problem. I’ve been blessed beyond dreams to have the wife I’ve been given. She is the most wonderful woman.”
David is also relishing being a grandfather and the unconditional love that having grandchildren unleashes within you, so much so that he nearly turned down two new television roles – including four-part psychological drama The Au Pair – more of which to follow – to prioritise time with his family.
“It’s totally changed my life. You’re aware of your age immediately and you’re aware of your mortality immediately,” smiles the actor, who was knighted for services to drama and charity in the 2020 Honours List.
“You’re aware when you’re holding a young baby that the flesh and blood in them comes from you, so that’s why you’re so aware of your mortality. It also changes your life because you have a new responsibility. But you must also give responsibility to your daughter or your son and not try to tell them what you think they should be doing.”
His grandchildren are aged 10, eight, five, and two. Most grandparents could be forgiven for finding four children at different ages and stages a bit of a handful.
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Sandrine (Ludmilla Makowski) brings George (David Suchet) a bowl of soup and jokes with him. (Image: )
But not so for David. “The cliche is, it’s lovely to have your grandchildren for the day because you can give them back at the end,” he laughs. “That’s not my experience. My experience is that it’s lovely to have them round for the day, but it’s also wonderful to be part of a family where you can really enjoy the feeling of being a grandfather and a grandmother all the time. It’s a very special relationship.”
All the same, he does admit that being a grandparent as he approaches his ninth decade poses certain challenges.
“We are actually old to be grandparents, and it’s very, very tiring indeed. Perhaps it’s becoming a grumpy old man, but I’ve grown very noise-sensitive. But what are two-year-olds supposed to be? Quiet? Certainly not! It’s not part of the job description. That’s fine. So yes, there are things you have to learn and develop and adapt to as a grandfather.”
But the joy he gleans from their shared experiences is a huge part of why he always puts family first. “That absolutely dictates when I will work,” he says.
Filming Agatha Christie’s Poirot over an astounding 24 years took him frequently across France and England, from London to the Lake District. But now David takes care to balance his filming schedule with what’s happening at home to support his grown-up son and daughter, Robert and Katherine.
He explains: “I was very aware last year that filming both a drama, The Au Pair, and a documentary, Travels with Agatha & David Suchet, cut right across the school holidays. So they were two jobs that the family discussed but my children said, ‘Dad, you have to do them. Projects like these don’t come up that often’.”
He’s delighted to have heeded the advice having made The Au Pair, an unsettling drama starting tonight at 9pm on Channel 5. In it he plays George, the father of Zoe (Sally Bretton) who appears to lead an enviable life. She has a beautiful house in a gorgeous Cotswolds town, a prosperous husband, two lovely stepchildren and a flourishing tailoring business.
But all is not well in Zoe’s marriage and the arrival of George, a diabetic, who moves next door after requiring constant care, sees her hiring an au pair (Ludmilla Makowski) leading to the emergence of long-buried secrets. David describes George as “a man who did the wrong thing for the right reasons”.
It is the first TV role the actor has accepted since making the short-lived drama Press, seven years ago, and he was taken both by its complexity and the chance to play a gynaecologist, the job his father filled with distinction for many years.
“I could draw on all that. So it was very easy for me to play the role of a doctor. In The Au Pair, I had to deliver a baby, which was great because I watched my father deliver babies all my life.” He hastens to add that it wasn’t a real baby. “I wouldn’t be allowed to do that!”
Of course, David’s own storied career is full of accolades. He’s won awards for his performances in Freud, Blott on the Landscape, A Crime of Honour, The Way We Live Now and Maxwell. In 2013, he received a Lifetime Achievement gong at the Royal Television Society Awards for his outstanding performances in Poirot.
Next up, he is reconnecting with Christie after filming Travels with Agatha & David Suchet for two months last year. In the documentary series out soon on Channel 4, the actor travels to Australia, Canada, Hawaii, New Zealand and South Africa retracing the route that the then 31-year-old Christie took in 1922 with her husband, Archie, as he promoted the British Empire for financier Imperial and Foreign Corporation.
David revelled in the experience. “To spend eight weeks following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie was a life-changer for me. I learnt so much about a person I had only known as the grand dame of thriller writing, a rather reclusive woman who didn’t like the limelight,” he says.
“At that time, she’d only written one Poirot book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and she only wrote that because her sister dared her to.”
During the trip, “Christie wrote some Poirot short stories and by the time she came home, she had decided to become a full-time author”.
He discovered another side to the crime novellist. “I met a young lady who was independent, adventurous, charming, a bit of a flirt. What an honour for me to follow in the footsteps of this woman who actually changed my life!” he chortles. Do you feel thankful to her? “Oh, yes. How could I not?”
Poirot continues to have an exceedingly positive impact on David’s life. “I very much miss him. I can’t not because I’m reminded of him every single day when people come up to me and say lovely things.
“The appeal is multi-generational. I met a young boy of nine in the hairdressers recently. His reaction was absolutely amazing because an hour previously he’d been watching Poirot. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Children adore the character. “Some youngsters send me pictures of them dressed as Poirot, with the moustache, the cane, the poinsettia in the buttonhole, and they’re tiny!”
Other fans, he discloses, “break down because Poirot reminds them of the time they would sit with their gran and granddad or their mother watching the show. I couldn’t wish for a better tribute. You can’t foresee that sort of reaction. That’s why I never take it for granted”. Many fine actors have taken on the role since David hung up Poirot’s homburg hat in 2013 – Sir Kenneth Branagh and John Malkovich spring to mind.
Yet David is reluctant to pass judgment on any of his successors. “They have remade Poirot with other actors, and so they must – just as they must keep staging Shakespeare’s plays with different actors. I’ve taken over hundreds of roles that have been played by other people,” he begins.
“I haven’t watched any of the more recent Poirots. I don’t want to because people will always ask me about them, hoping I will criticise them. But that’s not my nature.
“Every actor I’ve ever known always tries to do their best. So I wish all those who play Poirot now and in the future the very best of luck because the character is such a wonderful gem.”
Would he ever be tempted to pick up Poirot’s cane again? “I wouldn’t do him on television now. I’d love to have played him on the big screen, but that never came my way. He’s gone now, and I’ve got to let him go, but I won’t be allowed to let him go while the public is still enjoying him.”
There is clearly no sign of Poirot fading quietly into the background. “I couldn’t have asked for a better role. Those dramas will never date because they were dated when they were made,” he says.
“I’m just beginning to realise that the character I finished playing in 2013 will have a life after I’ve gone and it is such a privilege to know that. None of this was planned, but I just feel eternally grateful for what I’ve been given.”
But while David may have moved past Poirot, he’s not done with television drama just yet. The only thing he rules out playing is a contemporary detective.
“It’s not my medium. I’m not a crime reader and I’m not a crime watcher. I’m just a crime player!” he teases.“I’d love to do some more TV drama. I’ve just been offered a big series and I’ve got two that are being developed for me, and a couple more documentaries as well.”
So he doesn’t see himself reaching for the pipe and slippers any time soon then? “No, I will only retire when the telephone stops ringing,” he says. There seems little likelihood of that happening any time soon.
- The Au Pair, starts tonight at 9pm on Channel 5