Agatha Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot is known for many things: his OCD, his attention to details, his adorable moustache, but what about his relationships? Did the mystery writer ever give her hero a love interest? Find out here...
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While Hercule never marries, he has one love interest throughout the series who appears only briefly in one novel and two short stories, The Big Four, The Double Clue and The Capture of Cerberus.
Has Poirot ever been in love?
Countess Vera Rossakoff is a Russian jewel thief who also appears in the 2001 adaptation Murder on the Orient Express, as a bar owner who asks Poirot to solve a murder (before suggesting an offer marriage, which Poirot declines). In The Double Clue, Vera is one of Poirot's suspects as to who stole Marcus Hardman’s medieval jewels.
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Pauline Moran, who plays Miss Lemon, has also previously spoken of her character's adoration for Poirot, though admitted that there was "no sexual tension" between the pair. She said: "Miss Lemon adores Poirot. But of course, this is all unspoken, as it has to be, because there is no sexual tension between the two of them, but I think the audience might pick up that she absolutely adores him."
Miss Lemon might have harboured a crush towards the detective
The show's producer, Brian Eastman, added: "Although I don’t think we’ve ever spelled it out, the viewer is quite clear about Miss Lemon’s status in the series – her aspirations, her liking for Poirot and all the things a great actress brings to a role.
"To me, the cleverness of this addition is that it never becomes too explicit, so that viewers can decide for themselves to interpret certain looks and lines in their own ways, but to me, the signs are certainly there... I don’t particularly mind this addition either, especially because Poirot is never aware of her interest."
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He added that David Suchet wanted Poirot to be seen as an asexual character, explaining: "In this sense, it just underlines the asexual qualities of Poirot that Suchet seems keen to portray."