a life less ordinary

We found a dead body on our mountain.

Opening credits of Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989 - 2013)

Title designer Pat Gavin created the opening sequence in 1988. It was his job to set the tone for the tv show. The neat, streamlined sequence features Art Deco iconography in flight; Cassandre-style trains, boats, and biplanes with Poirot’s name formed by the wheels. In a reference to Poirot’s most famous case, Murder on the Orient Express, the detective is glimpsed aboard the passing train.

“The idea for the titles was a portrait of a man and his time. The late Mike Oxley — or "OXO” as we called him — was the production designer and we put our heads together and found we were both thinking about Art Deco as a stylistic theme. I had some old architectural magazines with all those wonderful buildings of the ‘20s and '30s, with architectural plans, and that was my original inspiration. I wanted to make it all look exactly like architectural photography from that time. They had a wonderful atmosphere. But I wasn’t able to quite achieve that look, partly due to budget and partly to not having a clue! I had to find another way, so it became Art Deco–Cubism. I liked the idea of the fractured, multifaceted Cubist style because it reminded me of a puzzle and this is of course what Poirot does — he solves puzzles. Making Poirot himself a bit of a puzzle seemed to describe the man and what he does. Brian Eastman, the producer, and David Suchet, the actor who played Poirot — brilliantly, I might add — both agreed and gave me the green light. David was very helpful during the filming. He was a joy to direct.“ - Pat Gavin, artofthetitle.com interview, March 26 2013