Doctor Who Vs. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Agatha Christie's sixteenth crime novel was

her most successful and dramatised 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 Richard Widmark, Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid

Bergman, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York,

and these eight Doctor Who cast and 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; Deschanel in The Body in the Library, 2011/France 2) 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