Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet

I was disappointed.

The show was supposed to re-create the travels of Agatha Christie, made for the 1924 London Exhibition. I doubt very much that, at that time, she would have paid much attention to the situation of the indigenous peoples of the countries she visited.

But that was then and this is now, and we can't have a travelogue or historic inquiry without pouring blame on the "colonialists" and industrialists of the bygone era. Cecil Rhodes didn't just build railroads, a nation, and world-famous scholarships, he did it all by abusing the native population. So now, in this era of woke politics, it is not a problem to smear his monuments with human excrement.

The Hudson's Bay Company and the Coureurs des Bois didn't trade with the native Canadian population, they treated them unfairly, making them stack up beaver pelts to trade for a musket. Then the Catholic Church stole the children and forced them to attend school. What a travesty!

Sorry, Sir David, but I was hoping to see the actual history of Agatha's travels, not some revisionist tripe.

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.