Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot was a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. He debuted in one of her first six novels. When asked why she made him a Belgian, Christie said they make such lovely buns. During her investigations of the murder of Professor Peach at Eddison Manor, she quoted her character when she said "Use the little grey cells," a reference the Tenth Doctor immediately recognised. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp)

The First Doctor claimed to Ian Chesterton that "he had met the man", recommending the books, and that Poirot had invented speculation. (TV: The Keys of Marinus)

The Tenth Doctor said that Hercule Poirot could solve any case by just sitting back and thinking. (PROSE: The Stone Rose)

Clyde Langer thought that Holcote House was the sort of place where one might have expected to find Hercule Poirot trying to solve a murder. (AUDIO: Children of Steel)

After calling everyone aboard the Tsuranga together, the Thirteenth Doctor remarked that they were "probably wondering why [she] called [them] all here", before apologising for how that sounded a "bit Poirot". (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)

Poirot would call everyone into a room to say who did it. The Eleventh Doctor did similar in 18th century Italy. (PROSE: Dead of Winter)

Behind the scenes

 * Unlike fictional detectives Sherlock Holmes or Thomas Carnacki, both crossover characters who appeared in Doctor Who novels, Poirot is not public domain in the UK.
 * The Death of Art has a brief mention of Inspector Anton Jarre's early career in which he worked with a young Belgian police sergeant.
 * Dave Stone created two parody versions of Poirot. The novel Ship of Fools features Emil Dupont, the self-described greatest detective in all of Nova Belgique. Earlier he created an Andre Dupont, "world famous Euro-Cit amateur sleuth par excellence" for a Detective-Judge Armitage text story.
 * The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Death in the Clouds are both Poirot novels named in The Unicorn in the Wasp.
 * He has been played by Maurice Denham and Peter Sallis on BBC Radio, Andrew Sachs in Revenge of the Pink Panther, David Mitchell in sketches on That Mitchell and Webb Look and David Suchet in the ITV series.
 * The amateur detective Hercule Smith from the short story The Sleuth Slayers was a pastiche of Poirot.