David Suchet on the Orient Express

The worst Christie adaption ever, bar none. One of her best novels has been butchered beyond recognition. Suchet is superb, as usual, but even he can't save this fiasco.

Suchet is known for playing Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. I recommend reading _Murder on the Orient Express_ since the book will be mentioned. In this program, Suchet is our guide through the book, the characters and the most intriguing character--the actual train. We get to learn more about the train as he talks of various facts related to the Orient Express--from its storied past to its refurbished glory. If you have a wallet like mine, you can experience the extravagance of the Venice Simplon-Orient Express through this program. I love the joy that Suchet showed during his journey. He respected the history in a humble manner. As for the comment regarding a token employee, Suchet's porter is on the web site. He's on several pages within the web site. Also, Suchet did an abbreviated version of the trip (London to Venice). If you're independently wealthy, you can do the whole shebang that's mentioned in the book. This made me start saving for an abbreviated trip (Venice to Paris) and a pocket watch.

ITV and Boston Public Television made this documentary as a full one hour feature film. It was a safe venture for the subject and the considerable interest there would be among Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot fans.

"David Suchet on the Orient Express" almost says it all. Well, the acclaimed actor with the epitome persona of Poirot hosts viewers on the modern Orient Express, and he pays a lot of attention to the recreated original designs, art work and furnishings of the luxurious cars that the most famous European train had.

The scenery is quite good, and the aerial photography of the train along its route adds more to the sense of adventure that a ride on the train would have been in the early to mid-20th century. A fascinating aspect of this documentary was learning about the switching of crews during the three and a half day journey from London to Istanbul. What is most interesting though, was the change in engines that pull and push the train, in each of the respective countries it passes through.

Suchet meets and visits with various members of the crews during his trip - from the stewards to the chefs, and the train managers along the way. For this special film, the new company that operates the restored Orient Express turned out the welcome mat for Suchet, aka Poirot, in a few places along the journey. It's a very interesting and enjoyable travel feature.

One learns about the interruption of the train during World War I and then World War II. And, of the great snowstorm and blockage of the train for many days in 1929. That served as an inspiration for Agatha Christie in the writing of her novel based on the Orient Express. Of course, Christie and her archaeologist second husband rode the Orient Express, probably more than once when he traveled to work on digs in the Middle East.

The only catch about this film is that it didn't go the full route of the Express from London to Istanbul. Instead, from Venice, Suchet rode the leg they joins the main line there, back up to Prague where that train originated and where the actor called it quits. A one-way ticket on the Orient Express in 2022 from London to Istanbul would cost just over $23,000. The film doesn't say that, but a quick check on the Internet brought it up.

I am pretty sure this TV special was made to capitalize on the "Poirot" episode "Murder on the Orient Express". In this case, David Suchet steps out of his character to take the viewer on a journey on the most famous luxury train ride on Earth, the Orient Express. He takes it from Britain to Prague (why not all the way to Istanbul, I really don't know). He talks about the history, chats with the crew and takes a few detours to see locales such as Venice and the Italian border. It's all a nice, meandering little journey and is never dull. Well worth seeing...whether you are a "Poirot" fan or not.

It took till the penultimate season of ITV's Poirot before they made their version of Murder on the Orient Express, so understandably it was quite a star-studded affair and was delivered with a certain amount of fanfare and event. This film screened some time before it and I do not think that it is too cynical to note that at least some element of it was promotional in terms of linking to the main film. Another aspect of it must surely have been Suchet perhaps wanting to remind people that he is behind the character and is not just this one thing. The final thing it does is of course to serve as a documentary into the journey and history of the titular train.

In terms of success the film is reasonably good at all of these things. As promotion for the main film, it is lovingly shot and makes frequent references to Christie and Poirot, and it does rather focus the mind on the setting for the film. As a piece to meet Suchet as himself, it is pretty good and he is a good presence in the film, however it must be said he is never as much of a presence nor as charismatic as the character he is most famous for – and occasionally doing the voice doesn't help this feeling. The documentary aspect is decent enough; mostly it is a travelogue and aside from the link to Poirot, it would sit well in those lazy scheduling slots where such celebrity-driven pieces are welcome. This is not to suggest that it doesn't have some nice detail and information in there, but it is never a documentary per se, and the delivery of facts and stories is never the focal point for very long, and the comparatively short running time doesn't help with this feeling either.

It is distracting in a light-entertainment way, and it does serve as a promotional piece for the series, but as one not given to such things, I did not find it much more than this.