Charles Brammall
“Hercule-an” English actor David Courtney Suchet is best known as the ridiculously curly-waxed moustachioed Hercule Poirot in “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” from ‘89 to 2013. For this he received international acclaim and the 1991 British Academy Television Best Actor award.
Sir David is (or was/might be) a Christian. He surrendered to Jesus in 1986 after reading Romans 8 in a hotel room (Gideon’s Bible? Gotta love the Gideons!).
Octogenarian-minus-one David Suchet has been married to actor Sheila Ferris (“Some Mothers Do ‘ave ‘em”, “Yes Minister” etc) for 50 years.
David has also played Edward Teller in the TV series Oppenheimer (1980), and received the Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild awards for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in the series The Way We Live Now (2001).
Having grown up agnostic (though never quite, he says, atheist) one day at about forty he was lying in a bath in an American hotel. He was thinking about the afterlife and the resurrection. David was puzzled– being an agnostic- that his thoughts should turn that way, but he decided to investigate further, and bought a New Testament.
Not quite knowing where to begin, but having always been fascinated by the Roman Empire, he started at the book of Romans: “I didn’t understand much of it, but halfway through I came across a passage that spoke of a way of life I wanted to be part of… it was a world view I’d been searching for ever since the 1960s. Suddenly, I’d found something… I felt I’d been looking for perhaps most of my adult life… a coherent philosophy I could really relate to. Christianity offered me that. The Christian worldview is love.”
(Hmm… Yes. But much more than that?)
David was baptised Anglican as an infant, and confirmed in 2006, but didn’t become a practising Anglican until 2017. He has said that his trust in Jesus significantly influences his life.
Raised outside any religion, he told an interviewer from Strand Magazine, “I’m a Christian by faith. I like to think it sees me through a great deal of my life. I very much believe in the principles of Christianity and the principles of most religions, actually— that one has to abandon oneself to a higher good.” (Synchretism yet again?)
In 2012, Suchet made a BBC documentary on his personal hero Paul the apostle, to discover what he was like as a human, by following his evangelistic missions around the Mediterranean area. In 2014 he shot another documentary, this time regarding Peter the apostle.
In 2012, the British Bible Society appointed David (and one other) as new vice-presidents, joining Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols. After relinquishing his role as Poirot, David finally achieved a twenty-seven-year ambition to make an audio recording of the complete NIV Bible, which he released in 2014. [And you can listen to it on the You Version App]
Suchet was born in 1946 in London’s Paddington, and dad Jack (whose family was Lithuanian Jewish), was an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. Jack had emigrated from South Africa. Mum Joan (whose own mother was Russian Jewish, and dad Anglican), also became an Anglican. Her son followed in her footsteps as an actress.
But Suchet has been open about questioning his Christian faith after making a new documentary series.
He said he began having doubts after conversations with people of different faiths, for a ten-part Audible podcast, “Question of Faith”.
He spoke to “The Times” about why he is having doubts about his commitment to the Church of England: “I’m not a great fan of organised religion. But that’s really as a result of making these fantastic programmes.”
Asked how his faith has changed, he said: “More spirituality – Christian spirituality because that’s where I was moved towards, but very much away now from doctrine and dogma, which I find very polemical.”
He told “The Times” about his experience hearing from Kamal Khatib- an Israel based Muslim preacher- for the documentary:
“I met Kamal Khatib, this hate preacher, really anti-West. I could see this man, this preacher, rousing his congregation who all would shout ‘Allahu akbar’. They would all become incensed. It was like Henry V, ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends’.”
However, he found himself looking past Khatib’s ‘manipulative’ words when he spoke with him one-to-one: “He was a man with such conviction about Islam and the caliphate and what he took to be his vision of the Koran, that I found myself leaning forward and going ‘really?’
“I found myself empathising. I didn’t have sympathy but my interest was growing and I wanted to know more.”
He also spoke to Rev Canon Andrew White, AKA the “Vicar of Baghdad” about his ministry at the last Anglican church in Iraq:
“As [Rev White] said, when religion goes bad, it goes very, very bad and only religion can solve it. A lot of the problem with fanatical behaviour is taking religious texts out of context and quoting them word for word.
“The majority of Muslims that I’ve ever met are the most wonderful, spiritual people.”
Now, in an autobiographical book, ‘Behind the Lens’, Suchet- a keen photographer- has moved to the other side of the camera. He delivers a vision of the events and characters that have shaped his life. And as one would expect, he addresses his Christian faith. He analyses it with the same precision and exactitude of study that he gives to characters he plays on screen and stage.
Please pray for David and Sheila and their kids.
Our gracious God and loving Heavenly Father,
Thank You for making David and Sheila and the kids in Your image. Praise You for loving them, giving them life and each other, and Your world to enjoy. And thank You for giving us their performances to exult in.
For the glory of Jesus’ name,
Amen
Dear Heavenly Father,
Bless You for giving up Your only Child to die instead of the Suchets, for their rebellion against You. Thank You for offering them adoption as Your loved children and Jesus’ loved brothers. We beg You to call them, forgive, and rescue them. And to acquit, declare them innocent, and reunite them with You.
That Jesus’ name might be exalted,
Amen
Our Loving Father and Holy Judge,
Please give the Suchets Your Spirit’s insight and wisdom to see the truth of Jesus’ unique salvific power. We beg You to provide all their needs, especially spiritual. Please show them Your mercy and compassion.
In Jesus’ mighty name,
Amen
Image David Suchet as Hercule Poirot