Doctor Who Vs. Agatha Christie's Poirot, Series 7

David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson, and

Pauline Moran all returned for two feature-length

serials based on the Queen of Crime's earliest

books. Christie's seminal work, The Murder of

Roger Ackroyd, was published in 1926, the year

of her controversial disappearance.

The novel formed the basis of the earliest Poirot adaptation, the play Alibi (first performed in 1928

with Charles Laughton in the lead), which in turn

inspired the writer's first stage play, Black Coffee

in 1930. Orson Welles adapted, directed and

starred in the first radio version of 1939, whilst

Radio 4 dramatised the story in 1987. Lord

Edgware Dies (the seventh Poirot novel) was

 issued in 1933, and was adapted by CBS as Thirteen at Dinner (the original American title) in

1985. After a four-year hiatus the mysteries were transmitted in the winter

of 2000 - the first was repeated on ITV3 last night - and both featured a

total of eleven Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (UK TX: January 2)

• Malcolm Terris (Ackroyd) was Etnin in The Dominators, and the Co-Pilot in The Horns of Nimon
• Daisy [Roma] Beaumont (Ursula) was Maisie in Mummy on the Orient Express
• Jamie Harcourt was also a camera operator on The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit
• Richard Hammatt was a stuntman on The Runaway Bride too
• Garry Dawson also worked on the stand-by props for Cold War and The Crimson Horror

Lord Edgware Dies (UK TX: February 19)

• John [Michael Frederick] Castle (Edgware here; DI Craddock in A Murder is Announced, 1985 & The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, 1992) voiced Edmund Trevithick for Big Finish's Nightshade (2016)
• Fenella Woolgar (Ellis here; Elizabeth in Hallowe'en Party; Narrator of The Last Séance & Midwinter Murder) depicted Agatha Christie in The Unicorn and the Wasp, then voiced Commander Hellan Femor for Fitz's Story (2009), Morella Wendigo for Nevermore (2010), Leanne for Ghost Walk, Professor Jemima Still/Formidian Queen for Time in a Bottle (both 2018), Vanessa Seaborne for Planet of the Drashigs (2019), Lady Malina Rigel Smythe for Shadow of the Sun (2020), Captain Eslo for Pursuit of the Nightjar (2023), and Princess Beatrice for Rictus (2025)
• Janet [Elizabeth] Hargreaves (Lady Corner here; Unknown/Mrs. Boyle in The Mousetrap, 1960/1998; Anne in Murder at the Vicarage, 1978) and Christopher Guard (Alton here; Legge in Dead Man's Folly) both appeared in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, as Mum and Bellboy respectively
• Dominic Guard (Martin) was Olvir in Terminus
• Jonathan Aris (Receptionist) voiced the Department Head for Altered Status (2021)