In the Studio: Sophie Hannah
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The crime writer Agatha Christie remains the best-selling novelist of all time even though her death was almost 50 years ago. Her fictional detective Hercule Poirot has attained legendary status, so for a modern novelist to breathe new life into the character is a considerable challenge. However, the English psychological crime author Sophie Hannah has been doing just that. In 2014 she wrote her first novel using Poirot as the central character and we follow her in 2018 as she prepares her third Poirot novel for publication, entitled The Mystery of Three Quarters. Felicity Finch next catches up with Sophie as her fifth Poirot novel, Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night, is due to be published.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | excitement here in New Zealand has been ignited for this tournament. |
| 0:04.3 | Hearing our fans being behind us is just unforgettable. |
| 0:08.2 | World football at the Women's World Cup from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.8 | We're going all the way, baby. |
| 0:14.1 | Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:18.0 | Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:22.9 | This is a series that gets inside the minds of some of the world's most creative people. |
| 0:28.9 | I'm Felicity Finch and on a crisp, bitterly cold January day in 2018, |
| 0:34.7 | I was in the British University City of Cambridge to meet Sophie Hanna. |
| 0:40.0 | She's the crime writer tasked to bring Agatha Christie's famous Belgium detective, |
| 0:45.0 | Hercule Poirot, back to life and back to the page. |
| 0:49.4 | Hercule Poirot smiled to himself as his driver bought the motorcar to a stop with satisfying symmetry. |
| 0:56.0 | As a lover of neatness and order, Poirot appreciated such perfect alignment |
| 1:00.6 | with the entrance door's white haven mansions where he lived. |
| 1:05.5 | Hello Sophie. |
| 1:06.5 | Come in. Nice to meet you too. |
| 1:08.7 | Nice to meet you too. |
| 1:10.2 | Thank you. |
| 1:11.8 | The crime writer Agatha Christie, who died in 1976, |
| 1:15.6 | has remained the world's best-selling novelist. |
| 1:19.0 | Ten years ago Sophie, who herself is a renowned writer of psychological crime fiction, |
| 1:24.0 | was entrusted by Christie's estate to resurrect Poirot. |
... |
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