her most successful book to date, and it
remains Hercule Poirot's most renowned
case. The book was serialised in America
as Murder in the Calais Coach in 1933, then
issued as Murder on the Train.
The Queen of Crime's inspiration for the
story's setting was personal - her own journey
on the train was delayed by flooding in 1931.
The background behind the titular crime was
based on the actual Lindbergh kidnapping
case of 1932.
The first cinematic adaptation of the mystery
(released by EMI in 1974) was shown on
BBC2 today. The stellar cast was led by
Albert Finney (1936-2019) as Poirot, and featured Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid
Bergman, John Gielgud, Richard Widmark, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa
Redgrave, Michael York, and eight Doctor Who cast/crew connections:
- George Coulouris (Dr. Constantine here; DI Hamstead in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1939) was Arbitan in (episode 1 of) The Keys of Marinus
- Big Finish actor Vernon [Alexandre] Dobtcheff (Concierge here; Lee in Hercule Poirot's Christmas) was Alien Scientist in The War Games, then voiced Dadda Desaka for The Cradle of the Snake (2010), Sibelius Crow for The Necropolis Express, Shamur for The Children of Seth (both 2011), Professor Heinrich Schumann for Threshold (2012), and Jorenzo Zorn for The Genesis Chamber (2016)
- Andrew Andreas (Waiter) was an Egyptian Warrior in The Daleks' Master Plan (10), Guard in The Enemy of the World, and German Soldier in The War Games (3)
- David de Keyser (Ticket Collector here; Beaujeu in The Chocolate Box) provided the voice of the Atraxi for The Eleventh Hour, then voiced the Cybermen for The Eternity Clock
- Robert [born Lucio Herbert] Rietty (Loudspeaker voice) voiced Bedloe for Death Comes to Time
- Vic Tablian [born Varoujan Aintablian] (Hawker here; Guard for Radio 4 version, 1993/4) was Ahmed in Pyramids of Mars (1)
- Richard Rodney Bennett (composer here & Murder with Mirrors) and Marcus Dods (conductor) both worked on The Aztecs too
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