BritBox’s forthcoming six-part drama, Hercule, will reimagine Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot by exploring his younger years, including his early friendship with Captain Arthur Hastings and first dealings with Scotland Yard’s James Japp. It matters because the series aims to present a new version of one of crime fiction’s most frequently adapted characters, while drawing on several of Christie’s best-known mysteries.

Edward Bluemel will play Poirot, with Benji Walters writing and Jonny Campbell directing; filming began during summer, although no release date has been announced. The first confirmed adaptation is Christie’s 1933 novel Lord Edgware Dies, also published as Thirteen at Dinner, in which an actress seeking a divorce becomes linked to the murder of her husband; the cast also includes Jack Gleeson, Tamsin Greig, James Nesbitt and James D’Arcy.