Poirot actor David Suchet solves the riddle of the sexes

The English actor who played the eccentric but brilliant detective from 1989 to 2013 reveals why most of his fans are female.

• Why Suchet loves Sydney

David Suchet is still confused why he drew — and continues to draw — the affection of
the opposite sex in his quirky role as Agatha Christie’s Hercules Poirot.

The English actor embodied the eccentric but brilliant detective from 1989 to 2013 and despite being very happily married since 1976, that hasn’t stopped female attention coming his way.

“I would say that over half, well over half of my fan base in terms of letters and tweets and people waiting at the stage door, they do tend to be women — Poirot seems to appeal to the ladies,” he told Confidential.

“I never understood why.

“The surprise thing that comes up over and over especially in this modern age of women and equal rights is that when women write to me they are overawed by his gentleness and manners and old-fashioned qualities.

“There seems to be a great appreciation of the way he treats women and makes them feel feminine.”

Suchet will be touring Australia in January. Picture: Toby Zerna

The 73-year-old will return to Australia in January for his Poirot and more: A Retrospective tour, where he will talk about his whole career.

While the idea of the show is for the audience to listen to Suchet, he said the greatest quality he learned from Poirot, his other half, was how to listen.

“He taught me how to listen,” he said.

“He has the ability as a human being to listen to you when you’re speaking, to make you feel you’re the only person in existence.

Suchet (right) in his best-known role, as Hercules Poirot. Picture: ABC

“He focuses on you in such a way that he’s watching your movements, your eye movements, listening to every syllable you utter to try to glean the depth of meaning behind what you say.

“He taught me in order to do that on screen I have to learn how to listen well.”