Poirot is always traveling, whether it's by boat or train, and once by plane which he seemed to hate but nonetheless, he is always going to exotic places and staying at such luxurious hotels or at friends mansions. He seems to be on a permanent vacation.
Would a private detective be living an upper class lifestyle in England 1920-50's?
He had both his private detective (to the upper class) salary and his police pension, so he certainly wouldn't have been short of money.
shareHow long was he a police officer to collect a pension at such a young age. The show starts off in the 1920's and Poirot looks pretty young. Poirot is a private detective until Curtains in 1970's.
David Suchet was very young, but he was playing a man in his 60's.
Poirot was a respected policeman already by 1893, and according to wikipedia ('Double Clue' is the source there) rose to the rank of Chief of Police before the first world war.
The character actually lived well into his 100's (about 140) becuase Agatha christie didn't expect herself, or the books to continue on so long, Curtain was actually written in the late 40's witht he intent of killing Poirot off.
In the show Curtian is set in 1949 and most of the episodes are not set in the 1920's but the 1930's (between 1934 and 1939, with far too many set in 1936 to be possible), the chocolate box has flashback to 1909 when poirot was a policeman.
Thanks, that clears up alot! That's crazy that Poirot is in his 60's at the begin of the show, David looks so young but that makes much more sense on how he can afford his extravagant lifestyle.
Now Hastings, what's his deal? Let me guess, he's retired, living on an Army pension. At the beginning of the series he seems to be Poirots paid associate but as the show progresses Hastings is more of a traveling companion/friend rather than an employee.
Hastings was about 35 in the mysterious affair at styles, where he was on sick leave, so was still in the army in 1917.
Then later he owns a farm in Argentina with his wife and in the show opens a restaurant.
The show has him living with poirot, presumably under his employment. In the books he doesn't, he frequently visits while on leave or on holiday from America and stays there.
The show kept the 4 main characters together and put them into far more stories than they were originally in, so it made sense to keep Hasting around.
Sounds like you've read the books as well. I've only seen the show. It's funny how they never showed Japp or Hastings wives. Japp always complained about his wife but I didn't even know Hastings had a family until the last episode.
We see Hastings meet his Wife in murder in the links, they never get the actress back though.
What I wouldn't give to watch Poirot for the very first-time again. I'm going to watch the episodes you mentioned again, thanks!
sharePoirot was always established in the books as being very wealthy. He was wealthy enough, by the time of 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' to retire in comfort. That novel was set in 1926...about ten years after Poirot became a private detective. And then, once he came out of retirement and started taking high-profile cases of rich clients again...he only likely grew wealthier.
Formerly sn939
In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Hastings says that John Cavendish, "was a good fifteen years my senior, for one thing, though he hardly looked his forty-five year," so Hastings is about 30, which makes sense for a captain who has just been demobbed. It's always really annoyed me how almost every adaptation ages Hastings/erases the age difference between him and Poirot. It completely changes the dynamic of the relationship, and makes Hastings often seem considerably stupider than he was in the books. Not that he was a genius or anything, but he wasn't an idiot.
shareI think Poirot is meant to be about fifty in the first book. He ages very slowly. agatha christie sometimes expressed concern about his age, but of course fictional characters in long running book series often age slowly,or not at all. jeeves and Berties Wooster never got any older for instance, though their stories were written over a sixty year period.
shareI would imagine that Poirot's travel expenses would have been billed to the client he was traveling for. There are several episodes where he turns cases down no matter how much money is offered so that kind of says that he is well off and in no need of money without actually saying it. Also, most of his clients are rich and demand discretion so they probably pay him very well!
sharehe is a very successful detective and has some rich clients. I think he charges his wealthy clients large fees.
shareTrue. I'm sure he charged a hefty fee for his services. Not to mention that people were usually desperate enough to pay him extra as they were opposed to going to the Police. I also think perhaps he was raised in or around upper class folk due to his impeccable manners and taste.
shareThere was not such a huge gap between the wealthy and middle class as there is now.
E.g. foreign travel, like a trip to Paris, cost less than a week's wages for a manual labourer. You cannot even imagine that today.
He also might have had an inheritance.
shareit's a tv show.
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