ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 26, 1996 TAG: 9610280005
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's ultrapolite Belgian sleuth, may or may not be coming to the end of his inquiries.
The company that produces ``Mystery,'' ITV, reportedly wants to introduce other crime solvers to the long-running public television series.
A big clue to that possibility is that David Suchet, who has exercised Poirot's ``little gray cells'' in murder-solving for eight seasons, has moved on to other challenges.
Recently he appeared in the Kurt Russell thriller, ``Executive Decision,'' as an Arab terrorist aiming to sprinkle nerve gas on America's East Coast. At present he is co-starring on the London stage with Diana Rigg in ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' Rigg has served as host of ``Mystery'' since 1989, succeeding the great Vincent Price.
This season Suchet appears in ``Dumb Witness'' on Halloween and on Nov. 7, then in ``Hercule Poirot's Christmas'' on Nov. 14 and 21, as well as five reruns.
Is this the end of Poirot?
``Perhaps so,'' answers Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of ``Mystery'' as well as ``Masterpiece Theatre.'' ``But then Horatio Rumpole (Leo McKern), Inspector Morse (John Thaw) and Sherlock Holmes (the late Jeremy Brett) all said they wanted to quit, and they came back.
``There are no more Poirots in the works that I know of. But never say never.''
Not to worry. ``Mystery'' has other crime solvers in the bullpen.
``One is `Hetty Wainthropp,' who will appear next season,'' said Eaton, speaking from her home in the Boston suburb of Newton. ``She is played by Patricia Rutledge, a great favorite of public television because she is in a series called `Keeping Up Appearances.'
``She plays an English lady of a certain age, retired and a housewife, who gets involved in a murder and begins her own business as a private investigator. Four shows are already completed, and there will be 20 if it works. She's sort of a Miss Marple character.''
``Mystery'' presents 18 new shows per season; the rest are reruns. Dramatic shows on commercial television suffer precipitous declines on reruns. ``Mystery'' does not.
``In our history, reruns perform almost as well as the original broadcasts,'' Eaton commented. ``I don't quite know why. You'd think once you've seen a `Mystery,' you know how it ends, so why would you want to watch it again?
``Either a whole new audience finds it, or the audience is taken with the actors. Because the shows are all personality-driven.''
Eaton was born in Boston to an actress mother and a father who taught Shakespeare. She grew up in Pasadena, where her father was dean of students at Cal Tech while her mother, Katherine Emery, acted in movies.
After graduating from Vassar in English literature, she worked at the BBC in London for two years. She returned to Boston for a post at National Public Radio, then started with WGBH in 1972.
``Mystery'' is now and has always been decidedly British. Critics have wondered why the show doesn't give American detectives a break.
``The reason the show has been British is the economics of the situation,'' Eaton explained. ```Mystery' was an offshoot of `Masterpiece Theatre' which was funded by Mobil and is now known as `Mobil Masterpiece Theatre.' (Mobil no longer funds `Mystery.')
``Some 16 or 17 years ago, my predecessor and Mobil generated `Mystery' as a separate strand which would be made up entirely of the mystery genre. What we have done historically with both series is license the programs; the British companies make them and provide the primary financing.
``We couldn't afford to produce them for the same amount of money. The British make television programs more economically.
``It would be wonderful to make a series of American detectives, wonderful. There just isn't the money to do it.''
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) uses his ``little grayby CNBcells'' to solve the Emily Arundel murder case in ``Mystery,''
airing Thursday (Part 1) and Nov. 7 (Part 2) at 9 p.m. on
WBRA-Channel 15. color.