Help Save "Agatha Christie's Poirot"

Newsman

While we cannot do much to bail out MGM and get the next Bond rolling, I am asking for your help in saving another British icon.

The Hercule Poirot series may be canceled or budget's slashed preventing them from finishing the last 6 Poirot stories. We cannot allow this happen.

This is from a recent online article:

In early 2010, it was speculated the Poirot series might end before the last six stories (out of 71) are filmed. David Suchet said, “I’m pragmatic and accept that things get cancelled. Of course, there are cutbacks in TV drama and if it is not to be, it is not to be. I will have to be a big boy and accept it.” He added, “Of course I would be very sad if it didn’t get recommissioned.”

Suchet also stated in April 2010 that if the series were to return, but on a lower budget scale, he would not want to continue making the last episodes if they would compromise the quality of the program.

So now is the time for fans to let ITV know that we would like ITV to produce the last of the Hercule Poirot stories by emailing ITV at

viewerservices@itv.com.

Or snail mail:

Viewer Services ITV Plc
Gas Street
Birmingham B1 2JT UK


You can also join my Facebook group to save the show:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122230311155159


THANK YOU!!!

mrbond

As a Christie fan I'm surprised I've not heard about this but Taggart was in a similar position a few months back and that got recommistioned because it was too valuable for ITV to loose. I think that is the case with Poirot. Why don't they just axe rubbish like Loose Women or X Factor or even Britain's Got Idiots (as I like to call it!).

Red Indian

Did anyone see the Orient Express special with Suchet?

I thought he did a great job hosting it! What struck me the most was that for all that money there is no shower! I guess you're really paying to travel back in time and experience life as it was back then!

Thunderbird 2

I hate to say so, but this is not surprising, and merely the start.

Please note "Last nights" Poirot has NOT been screened in the UK yet!! Ie NO Spoilers please!

It is believed the Arts Council of England is going to announce tomorrow how 25 - 30% cut in the arts budget the Government is planning will be disasterous for the arts in the UK, including Film, Tv, and Theatre. ITV (specifically Granada) has kept Poirot going since LWT who originally made it, lost its franchise back in the early nineties, and also went out of business as a production house. Then Granada was rebranded as part of ITV Studios, and again last year to ITV Productions. Its the only "flagship" period drama ITV now has, since Marple has fitted and stuttered, with ratings that dropped and not picked up again, in spite of changing the lead actress. - Needless to say, as a period series Poirot is very expensive to make, esp in this day and age.

Taggart nearly got the chop because it is made by STV productions, who were getting fed up of putting the production into ITV, but getting precious little in return. It seems that a new deal may have been brokered there, but I am guessing.

Looking further afield, Channel 4 is feeling the pinch looking for cheaper alternatives now they are finally admitting Big Brother is in its death throes, Sky only makes expensive programmes by being in watertight partnerships with American production companies and snaping up the Sport, (Battlestar Galactica was a good example of a Sky co-production) and the Beeb is under threat of getting its liscence squeezed. It has already announced that its capping actors wages to spread the blame. - A recent news report suggests they are planning to disclose star salaries, which its feared, could cause high level defections to other broadcasters.

The sad fact is, programming of this nature is dying out, - Taggart and Poirot are conspicuous as the only two major long running drama series still going unless you count the soaps.

Programmes like Loose Women, The Jerry Kyle Show, Bargin Hunt, DIY SOS, and This Morning - the latter has been going literally for decades, are cheap and cheerful "Junk Food" tv. Dropping them would make next to no difference because they collectively cost a fraction that a season of Poirot does! If they do dip in the ratings, they are easy to dump and replace with something painfully similar in seconds. - Everyone wins except the viewer.

7289

Poirot - excellent show, a shame to cancel it so close to the end.

The "Orient Express" episode was very well done and in some respects better than the Albert Finney film.

Loeffelholz

7289 wrote:

Poirot - excellent show, a shame to cancel it so close to the end.

Agreed; I loathe the corporate mentality generally, X-( but in the entertainment business it is especially galling. The Poirots will continue to be a money machine for decades via syndication, international rights and disc sales. They ought to stay the course and finish it in style. It's like Bond---there's a virtually guaranteed audience.

Unless, of course, the suits in charge of this are bedwetting tossers like those who steered MGM into the iceberg X-(

thesecretagent

The British television industry appears to be in dire staights. While a few good new dramas are being aired from time to time, repeats are abound, with literally a few months between. At prime time this is unacceptable. I can watch repeats of Midsomer Murders etc on one of the sky channels anytime I want, but a re-re-re-repeated eight year old episode at 8pm? No. A shame ITV are stocking up with cheap, general public and reality rubbish, and not putting its weight behind things like Poirot - which will give them something to re-re-re-repeat in eight years' time...

Napoleon Plural

I'm no particular fan of Poirot, but TV has become devalued as a brand in the UK, because when you turn it on you get cookery or quiz shows, it's cheap and nasty.

Nor, for some reason, do they show the same number of classic movies they used to, I don't know why. They can't cost that much, surely? You get the same old same old churned out - if they show Bond or Black Narcissus or Total Recall once, they'll show it three or four times a month, on other channels perhaps, but it has a deadening effect.

That's why I joined lovefilm (netflix to you) because there's a treasure trove of movie classics whereas it feels like my mate had a bigger movie collection than what you see on telly.

Napoleon Plural

I'm no particular fan of Poirot, but TV has become devalued as a brand in the UK, because when you turn it on you get cookery or quiz shows, it's cheap and nasty.

Nor, for some reason, do they show the same number of classic movies they used to, I don't know why. They can't cost that much, surely? You get the same old same old churned out - if they show Bond or Black Narcissus or Total Recall once, they'll show it three or four times a month, on other channels perhaps, but it has a deadening effect.

That's why I joined lovefilm (netflix to you) because there's a treasure trove of movie classics whereas it feels like my mate had a bigger movie collection than what you see on telly.

thesecretagent

Bloody repeats. )

Napoleon Plural

;% Yeah, sorry, I can talk!

Alex

3 days ago the neighborhood electric transformer blew up. (@1:17 AM)

There is something enchanting about mystery novels in the pitch black otherworld. I read "Poirot Investigates" in bed with a strong flashlight rested on my chest.

Captain Hastings & the little Belgian saved everything mon ami -{