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Agatha Christie's Poirot: how does Hercule Poirot die on the show? 

The popular murder mystery series was on television from 1989 to 2013 


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Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
July 28, 2020
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After adapting all of Agatha Christie's major literary works in Agatha Christie's Poirot, the ITV show said goodbye to Hercule Poirot in the same way that the novel series did - with the detective deciding to end his own life after committing a murder of his own. So how did he die? Find out here... 

READ: Did you spot this royal family member in Agatha Christie's Poirot?

Poirot dies from heart condition complications after refusing to take his amyl nitrite pills. By the final novel, Poirot is already older and weaker, but pretends to use a wheelchair to trick people into thinking he was more infirm. In the 1975 novel, Agatha wrote: "Crippled with arthritis, he propelled himself about in a wheelchair.

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"His once plump frame had fallen in. He was a thin little man now. His face was lined and wrinkled. His moustache and hair, and hair, it is true, were still of a jet black colour, but candidly, though I would not for the world have hurt his feelings by saying so to him, this was a mistake. There comes a moment when hair dye is only too painfully obvious." 

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While already ill, Hercule makes the conscious decision to stop taking his pills after he becomes a murderer himself. He kills Norton, a master manipulator who had convinced other people for doing his murders for him, and as such would never have been charged with any crime, and would have struck again. 

READ: All you need to know about Agatha Christie's Poirot star Philip Jackson

He then decides to end his own life afterwards to ensure it would be the final time he ever decided to take a life for the greater good. In the novel, his final words are: "Cher Ami!" to his good friend, Captain Hastings, whereas in the TV show, he murmurs to be forgiven in his final moments. 

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