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"The end is near... and now Hercule Poirot must face the final &amp;#039;Curtain&amp;#039;. David Suchet has achieved what many thought was impossible - 25 years on from his first appearance as the iconic Belgian detective, the 67-year-old actor has completed Agatha Christie&amp;#039;s entire Poirot canon for ITV. In a new interview, Suchet talks saying goodbye to Hercule, making TV history, how he almost walked out on the show and how he&amp;#039;d feel watching another actor play Poirot... On saying goodbye to Poirot...  &amp;quot;There is a complete strange mixture of... I now have to say goodbye, because I&amp;#039;ve done it, and then euphoria for exactly the same reason \u2013 I&amp;#039;ve done it! So it&amp;#039;s a mixture of things. &amp;quot;The predominant emotion is celebration, that actually it is time for him to go. The book was written; it&amp;#039;s been on our bookshelves since 1975. Anybody could have read it, so nobody should be really surprised, especially the fans of Agatha Christie. &amp;quot;She felt it was time, and having done all the stories, it is time [for me too]. So I&amp;#039;m very pleased to have done it - what a thing to leave behind, and personally, what a thing to have done.&amp;quot; On how Poirot was almost never completed...  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never been optioned. So every year has been, will you do it again? And there was a gap of four years at one point. &amp;quot;There was also a time when I read in a tabloid paper that I had decided to do no more! Then [another time] I got a letter from ITV saying, &amp;#039;Thank you very much, that&amp;#039;s it, we&amp;#039;re not doing anymore&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;So no, I never anticipated what was going to happen. And then all of a sudden, I realise it&amp;#039;s become a legend. All of a sudden, I realise it&amp;#039;s television history.&amp;quot;  On the possibility of playing Poirot again...  &amp;quot;Never say never, but I&amp;#039;ve only just finished filming and I don&amp;#039;t see how I can revive myself for a story that is not Agatha Christie. &amp;quot;However, I would love to do a remake of one of the stories for a movie. I would love to do &amp;#039;The ABC Murders&amp;#039;, which is my favourite \u2013 there&amp;#039;s nothing to stop me reprising the story for the cinema, because I&amp;#039;ve never done a cinema Poirot.&amp;quot; On almost walking out on the series...  &amp;quot;When it comes to defence of character or my work, then I will fight and I will not compromise. There will be directors throughout my 44-year career that have had a hard time with me - in the theatre, in radio, television and film - because I will serve my writer. &amp;quot;I will not ever be told how to play a role. That&amp;#039;s my job. if I&amp;#039;m not allowed my interpretation and that&amp;#039;s taken away from me, then I&amp;#039;m a puppet, and I can&amp;#039;t act that way. &amp;quot;And if the time comes when it&amp;#039;s make or break - I will walk, I will not compromise. I will say this quite openly and honestly in defence of the character - I would&amp;#039;ve walked at some points if I did not get the support of my producers.&amp;quot; On watching another actor play Poirot in the future...  &amp;quot;There will be another Poirot - of course, there will be another Poirot - and I will look forward to [it] and encourage him in exactly the same way that another great actor encouraged me - Peter Ustinov. &amp;quot;I will embrace and applaud the next Poirot with all my heart and hopefully will be as proud of them as Peter was of me.&amp;quot; Agatha Christie&amp;#039;s Poirot: &amp;#039;Curtain: Poirot&amp;#039;s Last Case&amp;#039; airs on Wednesday at 8pm on ITV. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a529839/david-suchet-says-goodbye-to-poirot-the-actor-on-making-tv-history/>