Poirot star David Suchet once got so absorbed by character he couldn't 'let go'

David Suchet has played Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot for 25 years, which means that some people are surprised that his accent is so quintessentially British.

‘If every fan switched on to watch Poirot at the same time, that would be 700 million people around the world,’ he says, grinning broadly.

‘If I speak to a fan overseas, their hand will often cover their mouth in shock.’

‘Don’t forget that abroad, I’m dubbed.’

Meeting David is every bit as wholesome an experience as you might expect.

He’s impassioned and kind, and has such a twinkle in his eye that we’re utterly charmed straight away.

He’s brought his wife, Sheila, along to our chat, and she sits on a sofa opposite, politely minding her own business.

To the British fans among us, David is most famous for his role as the eccentric detective, but also for Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice, Edward Teller in the wartime drama Oppenheimer and Sigmund Freud in the 80s mini series about the life of the groundbreaking psychoanalyst.

He spent over a decade of his life with the Royal Shakespeare Company and earned the nickname Super Suchet for learning multiple roles in a flash – like that of Mazda the lightbulb, which he played in panto.

But that’s a role he’d rather forget.

‘It was Christmas, of course, and we opened to Her Majesty with not a Shakespeare play, but a pantomime called The Swan Down Gloves.’

‘When I look back now, I wonder how we could have done that!’

This year, David celebrated 50 years in theatre and returned to the West End to play Gregory Solomon in The Price, a tale of family secrets and debt – a role he took on for the first time at just 25 years old.

‘In the early 70s, I – stocky, with a deeper voice – would play old men, because the old boys weren’t still acting back then.’

‘I’ve had the most wonderfully varied career,’ he reflects.

‘I’ve not been typecast.’

‘I’ll be remembered for Poirot, but there’ll be a whole column in my obituary of all the other things I’ve done, I hope.’

With a life and career as rich as his, David found compiling his memoir a pleasure.

Behind The Lens is the story of the actor’s life from his London upbringing and Jewish roots to his family and fame, and includes personal highs and lows.

Illustrated by his own photography – the results of a beloved hobby inherited from his grandfather – the book is a reflection of his life and legacy and, of course, his long and fascinating relationship with the adored Poirot.

David insists he’s not much like his best-known character, although there are some minor similarities.

‘I’m not as obsessive as him.’

‘If I’d have spent my life wanting two boiled eggs of exactly the same size, I think it would’ve led to a very early divorce.’

‘But I am an orderly person – my shirts are always ironed and hung up because if I look on chaos, I feel it too.’

‘When I tidy my desk, I feel nice and neat and clean myself.’

And his love of the spick and span and precise meant he didn’t use conventional methods to write his memoir.

‘I didn’t write the book – I recorded it,’ he reveals.

‘My life, my whole being, is words.’

‘What you’re reading is me chatting, off the cuff, about subjects that mean a lot to me.’

‘It’s not a typical autobiography – I didn’t want it to be – it’s a photo book.’

David’s memoir is dedicated to Sheila, his wife of 43 years who sacrificed her own acting career to care for their children – Robert, 38, an ex-Royal Marine, and Katherine, 36, a physiotherapist – and allow her husband to follow his passion in life.

That gesture, he says, was the most amazing, selfless gift he has ever been given.

‘Sheila’s a wonderful mother and wife.’

‘She allowed me complete freedom and never said no to anything I wanted to do,’ he reveals.

‘I’m not ashamed to say that I’m romantic.’

‘On our 40th wedding anniversary, we returned to The Savoy, where we spent our honeymoon.’

‘I filled the room with 40 red roses and played When I Fall In Love by Nat King Cole – it was the song I sang for her when we first went out together.’

David’s family are the undeniable loves of his life, and it’s fair to say the Suchets are a gifted bunch.

His father, Jack, was a lecturer and obstetrician who worked alongside Sir Alexander Fleming, while John, David’s brother, is best known as an ITV newsreader.

Before he became a household name, David was a salesman at Moss Bros and taught himself to be a jazz drummer.

He was also offered a job as a professor of theatre in New York.

The possibilities were endless, but he was always going to follow in the footsteps of his family.

‘It’s only when you look back that you see how that little spider’s web built up,’ he smiles.

‘My grandmother Elsie was a sand dancer in the music hall [a vaudeville act that saw performers tap dance on sand].’

‘When I was a child, she poured granulated sugar all over her kitchen floor to show me how it was done.’

‘She was in her 70s and I could see her as the young woman she once was.’

‘When she started singing, she looked up at the kitchen ceiling as if it were the gods in the theatre.’

David’s mother, Joan, had starred in the musical Lilac Time with the iconic actress Evelyn Laye and was thrilled when her son revealed his passion for acting.

During his stage shows, Joan had a special way of letting him know she was watching from the audience: she would cough.

‘I found myself waiting for that cough.’

‘When it came, although there was annoyance because she’d cough in the pause [he tuts], it made me so thankful she was there.’

‘It was the same feeling I had when she used to come and visit me at boarding school, which I loathed.’

‘We were just coming out of rations in 1954, when I was sent there – I remember Mum buying chicken on the black market.’

‘When you go to boarding school, you get fed good food, so Dad really thought he was doing the best thing,’ he smiles.

But David’s father was less than thrilled when he became an actor.

‘Dad felt very let down and I felt like a disappointment to him.’

‘He was proud of me towards the end of his life, though.’

‘I learnt from that your life is not for other people.’

‘I didn’t want to become anyone big and grand and famous – that doesn’t interest me – but acting was important to me.’

When he’s not working, David and wife Sheila try to take time out.

They’ve just returned from Sydney, where they met their newborn grandson and enjoyed a proper holiday for the first time in 50 years.

David is happy and relieved to have slowed down, enjoying time with his family and picking up his camera to photograph them.

‘It was probably the first time in my career – and my marriage – that I wasn’t actually working.’

‘And do you know, I loved it!’ he exclaims.

‘I’m so lucky to have my wife.’

‘I follow my gut and not my head, but I can become a flying kite and blow in the wind.’

‘Sheila holds my string and I hold hers.’

‘I become my characters…’

After a well-earned break, David will fly back to Australia to begin a live stage show, Poirot And More: A Retrospective, which sees the actor reflect on some of his favourite work in a new and intimate way.

So, how did playing such an iconic character affect his personal life?

‘I took my characters home in the early days, and I suppose bits do rub off, even if I do complete the process of removing a character.’

‘It’s inevitable.’

‘It’s quite hard not to take your work home.’

‘You play them every night for six months, or you do six months filming as Poirot.’

‘You absorb them, but you’ve got to be careful and responsible.’

‘You’ve got to let that go.’

‘I didn’t know how to let Freud go.’

‘I hadn’t been given that advice yet.’

‘I absorbed him and it worried me that I found him absorbing into me a little bit too much.’

Behind The Lens: My Life by David Suchet is out now (Constable, £25)