But when he took on the role, he did so with intense dedication - and ended up playing Poirot for half his career to date.

The character's dominance in his five-decade career - which he divides into Before Poirot and After Poirot - is acknowledged in the title of his upcoming Australian tour.

In Poirot and Me: A Retrospective, Suchet, 73, will be talking with former ABC journalist Jane Hutcheon, who interviewed him on her ABC program One Plus One in 2012. The show will obviously include, but will not be restricted to, Monsieur Poirot.

"It's very much my first time doing this," he says, promising "It will be so much more than 'An Evening With...' and it's going to be, hopefully, a really wonderful time."

While he might not have started out as a Christie fan, as he threw himself into researching the character - reading all the books - he ended up quite possessive, not afraid to disagree with the series' makers if he thought what they were doing wasn't in keeping with Poirot.

Suchet had seen Poirot movies and says he had not enjoyed the way the character was sometimes made "a figure of fun". He won't say which films, but his taste can be gauged from what he does like: he is quick to praise the "brilliant" performance of "Albie" Finney in the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express.

He had firm ideas about how he would play the detective, not wanting to make Poirot "a total eccentric".

Nor did he want the audience laughing at Poirot - he wanted them to be able to smile with the character.

"He's not just a figure of fun."

He ended up playing the Belgian detective 74 times in Agatha Christie's Poirot from 1989 to 2013 - covering all the Poirot novels and short stories. Suchet acknowledges good-humouredly that it's the role for which he will be best remembered. If there's another Poirot film, he says he would love to play the detective to whom he has grown attached one more time.

"I miss him very much."

As well as the pleasure and consistent work he gained playing Poirot, the TV series raised his profile and helped sell tickets to his stage performances.

"It gave me new opportunities to put my work before an audience. It put bums on seats."

He says, "A lot of Australians obviously don't know my theatre work" and there's a sense he wants to emphasise, in a polite way, that he's done a lot more than play Hercule Poirot - which he has.

Suchet is grateful that Poirot did not leave him typecast. He joined the National Youth Theatre at the age of 18, trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and began his acting career at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, Berkshire. In 1973, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where he stayed until 1986.

His recent roles have included Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and the manipulative Cardinal Giovanni Benelli in Roger Crane's The Last Confession, a production that came to Australia in 2014 but not to Canberra. His films include A World Apart and A Perfect Murder.

Suchet has been a member of the Church of England since 1986. He recorded a 78-hour complete New International Version of the Bible, released in 2013. Suchet says, "It took me 250 hours to record the Bible and 500 hours to prepare."

His awards include an International Emmy for best actor for playing Robert Maxwell in the BBC TV film Maxwell. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for "services to drama".

Suchet will certainly have a lot to talk about. And no doubt he will come very well prepared.