David Suchet has said he will never be free of Poirot – and nor does he want to be.

The final episode of the detective show, which starred him as Poirot and was based on Agatha Christie’s novels, aired last year, but David reckoned that he would never stop being recognised for the role.

He said: “I’ll never let him go. I’ll never be able to because he’s on our screens all the time somewhere in the world.

“I was in Rome last week and he was on – speaking Italian! I’m told by ITV there could be 760 million viewers worldwide, that’s quite a lot.”

David Suchet as Poirot
David Suchet as Poirot (ITV)

A few weeks ago, David and his wife Sheila went to Prague for a weekend they’d bid for in a silent charity auction and he saw the extent of Poirot’s reach.

He said: “We walk into the hotel and there’s these young people behind reception who see me and go bananas because they grew up in the Nineties, and with all the problems in Prague, watching Poirot gave them comfort.

“One person had tears in their eyes to say that their mother and father were kept going by the series. You just do the job and go home – but it’s had such a wonderful, far-reaching effect beyond just being entertainment, and that’s very humbling.”

David Suchet: In The Footsteps Of St Peter is on BBC One on Good Friday (April 3) and Easter Sunday (April 5). He also stars in The Importance Of Being Ernest at The Vaudeville Theatre from June 24 to November 7.