Poirot (TV Series)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (2000)

David Suchet: Hercule Poirot

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Last lines] 

  Hercule Poirot : I thought I could escape the wickedness of the city by moving to the country. The fields that are green, the singing of the birds, the faces, smiling and friendly. Huh! The fields that are green are the secret burial places of murders most hideous. The birds sing only briefly before some idiot in tweed shoots them. And the faces all smiling and friendly, what do they conceal?

• Hercule Poirot : [reading from the murderer's journal]  "Our village, Kings Abbott, is I imagine, very much like any other English village. A chilly medieval church stands at the top of a single street of stone-built cottages. At the bottom of the street, a bridge crosses a stream where the snotty-nosed offspring of the poor perfect the most advanced skill they will ever possess. Although to the casual observer, Kings Abbott is a friendly place, everything is not as it seems. Just scratch the surface, and you will find more jealousies and rivalries than ancient Rome. My little book is about the murder of Roger Ackroyd; the events leading up to it, the subsequent numbskull investigation, and the final revelation to you alone, dear reader, of the guilty party."

• Hercule Poirot : Now I give up on you. You shall torment me no longer. I will KILL you!

  [throws vegetable marrow from the garden, and it lands near Dr. Sheppard's feet] 

  Hercule Poirot : Sacre - ! My dear doctor, I beg of you a thousand pardons, but these vegetable marrows, they have driven me to the edges of barbarity! Ah, please to forgive me. I am ashamed; I prostrate myself.

• Hercule Poirot : [reading from the murderer's journal]  "Our only captain of industry is the vulgarian Mr. Roger Ackroyd. The factory from which Ackroyd's ill-gotten wealth emanates, encapsulates the life we lead here: ferment and turmoil... It is here that he lines his pockets by combining unlikely chemicals to make unnecessary products while befouling the very air we breathe. He likes to think of himself as a scientist."

• Inspector Davis : I don't know you, sir. What's your name?

  Dr. Sheppard : This is Hercule Poirot, Inspector.

  [Inspector looks at the Doctor blankly] 

  Dr. Sheppard : The famous detective?

  Inspector Davis : [suspiciously]  Oh yes? What are you doing here?

  Hercule Poirot : Monsieur Ackroyd was a friend of mine, Inspector. I was with him earlier this evening.

• Hercule Poirot : A man may labor and toil to attain a certain kind of leisure in retirement. And then find that, after all, he yearns for the old busy days, and the old occupations he had thought himself so glad to leave. I had already begun to miss the daily toil of my previous employment when, tout à coup, I was flung back into the midst of the most perversely fascinating work that there is in the world: the study of human nature. A journal came into my possession, in which a murderer had taken the trouble to record for posterity, the thoughts that had accompanied a crime most dastardly. Rarely have I come across such bitterness, such envy and contempt of others, such haughtiness misplaced.

• Hercule Poirot : When one retires, one hurls oneself into new pursuits.

• Chief Inspector Japp : Well, we'll see if you're right, Poirot. See if your newspaper article has flushed anybody out of the woodwork.

  Hercule Poirot : Can woodwork be flushed, chief inspector?

  Chief Inspector Japp : You know what I mean.

• Chief Inspector Japp : You're doing what you always do, Poirot.

  Hercule Poirot : What is that, chief inspector?

  Chief Inspector Japp : Confusing me.

  Hercule Poirot : Ah!

  Chief Inspector Japp : Just when I think I'm getting a grip on the case.

• Hercule Poirot : Decidedly, it is time for Poirot to act.

• Chief Inspector Japp : Home, sweet home, eh, Poirot?

  Hercule Poirot : Oui! But it is full of ghosts.

  Chief Inspector Japp : Lively ones too, some of 'em.