Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet

In 1922, before she was particularly famous, Agatha Christie and her first husband took a trip to various British Commonwealth countries in order to drum up support for a Royal Exhibition in London in 1924. Each episode features one of these countries...as well as Hawaii where she also stopped along the way. Episodes consist of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada.

While this is a very low energy and slow documentary, this is part of why I liked it. Suchet makes the seemingly mundane seem wonderful due to his incredibly sweet demeanor and lovely voice. You really love the things he says and does because you like him so much. Well worth seeing...even if you DON'T care about Agatha Christie.

In this five-part series, actor David Suchet (who played Hercules Poirot for 25 years) retraces an 11-month trip Agatha Christie and her husband took in 1922 to Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Canada. All the stops but Hawaii were to help prepare for the 1924-1925 British Empire Exhibition, a sort of World's Fair for British colonies.

At each stop, Suchet talks with historians and other experts who describe what the Christies would have experienced. But he also talks with ordinary folks and, in Canada, representatives of the First Nations, who were ignored during the 1922 trip. There are also some surprises along the way, like a guide whose great-great-grandparent had given the Christies a tour.

Throughout, Suchet demonstrates a love of learning, a deep respect for the people and cultures he encounters, and a growing appreciate for Agatha Christie, who (to steal a phrase from Judi Dench) was the woman who paid his rent for a quarter-century.