Jason Durr to Lead BLACK COFFEE UK Tour

Few actors come with sleuthing skills as sharp as Jason Durr who begins his run as the celebrated investigator Hercule Poirot in the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie's, espionage classic Black Coffee at Croydon's Ashcroft Theatre on June 3rd 2014.

Having recently appeared on UK stages in the title role of Sherlock Holmes: The Best Kept Secret, Durr's previous Poirot-training saw him emerge as a household name following starring roles in hit television series such as Lewis (ITV); Midsomer Murders (ITV) Miss Marple: The Blue Geranium (ITV); Inspector Morse (ITV); The Chief (ITV) and, of course, Heartbeat (ITV) where he consolidated his heartthrob status playing the role of PC Mike Bradley for six years.

Having trained at LAMDA, Jason's additional theatre credits include: Donkeys Years (Rose Theatre Kingston) The Mummy (Belgrade Coventry) Sherlock Holmes (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Volcano (number one tour/West End); Losing Louis (Hampstead/West End); Follow My Leader (Birmingham Rep/Hampstead); A Chorus Line (Crucible, Sheffield); The Wrong Side of the Rainbow (Donmar Warehouse); Macbeth (RSC); The Destiny of Me (Haymarket Leicester); Measure for Measure (RSC); The Blue Angel (RSC).

Other television credits include: New Tricks (BBC); Above Suspicion (ITV); Numb3rs (Paramount/CBS); Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice (both Clasart Film Productions); Mysterious Island (Hallmark TV); Fooling Hitler (Tiger Aspect); Bugs series three (Carnival/BBC); Christmas (World Productions/Channel 4); Sharpe's Battle (Central TV); A Dark Adapted Eye (BBC); Femme Fatale (BBC2); Gawain and the Green Knight (Thames TV); The Paradise Club (BBC); Iphigenia at Aulius (BBC)Jupiter Moon (BBC)

Film Credits Include: True True Lie (Castel Films); Porridge (Moonstone Film Lab); The Killer Tongue (Lola Films); Between Two Worlds (BFI); Young Soul Rebels (BFI) In A Heartbeat (Lovelight/Raoul Girard Productions) Down Dog (Apropos Films)

A quintessential English country estate is thrown into chaos following the murder of eccentric inventor Sir Claud Amory, and the theft of his new earth shattering formula. Arriving at the estate just moments too late, one man immediately senses a potent brew of despair, treachery, and deception amid the estate's occupants. That man is Hercule Poirot.

Black Coffee features a heavy-weight cast including Agatha Christie Company regulars: LIZA GODDARD, star of such TV hits as Bergerac and the long-running Give Us A Clue, GARY MAVERS who is best known for playing heart-throb doctor Andrew Attwood in Peak Practice and BEN NEALON, perhaps best loved for his role as Capt. Forsythe in the ITV drama Soldier Soldier.

As the Belgian investigator, Jason is set to get "the little grey cells" working in the latest production from the celebrated crime collective as the UK-wide tour which, following a critically acclaimed run - that opened in Windsor in January - now extends through to November 2014.

From the pen of the great Dame Christie - (who, having sold over 2 billion books worldwide is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare) - Poirot debuted in Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, making his first - and only - stage outing in the mistress of murder's debut play, Black Coffee.

The Belgian investigator went on to become one of world's most cherished and long-lived fictional characters, appearing in 33 novels, one play and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975. To this day he remains the only fictitious character to receive a front-page obituary in the New York Times.

His legend has proved ripe for adaptation and Poirot has been portrayed in comics, on radio and on screen for films and television, by actors such as Albert Finney, Sir Peter Ustinov, Sir Ian Holm, Alfred Molina and David Suchet who, of course, played the eponymous hero in the ITV series since 1989, through the entire catalogue of books and dozens of short stories. He recently bid audiences an emotional farewell as Series 13 of the classic series concluded with his demise in Christie's dramatic farewell, Curtain.

Such is Poirot's on-going popularity that the first official novel to continue Christie's work will be published in September 2014. Written by crime writer and poet Sophie Howard, the title alone will be announced this May with the support of the Christie estate.

Intrigue and suspense form the back-bone of this classic spy-thriller which follows The Agatha Christie Theatre Company's hugely successful; The Hollow, The Unexpected Guest, And Then There Were None, Spider's Web, Witness for the Prosecution, Verdict, Murder on the Nile and Go Back For Murder.

BLACK COFFEE - JASON DURR STARS AS POIROT: UK TOUR DATES

Tues 3rd - Sat 7th June 2014 www.fairfield.co.uk

Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon 020 8688 9291

Mon 9th - Sat 14th June 2014 www.everymantheatre.org.uk

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham 01242 572 573

Mon 23rd - Sat 28th June 2014 bordgaisenergytheatre.ie

Bord Gais Theatre, Dublin +353 (1) 677 7999

Mon 30th June - Sat 5th July 2014 www.theatresevern.co.uk

Severn Theatre, Shrewsbury 01743 281 281

Mon 7th - Sat 12th July 2014 www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-alexandra-theatre-birmingham/

Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham 0844 871 011

Mon 14th - Sat 19th July 2014 www.theatreroyal.co.uk

Theatre Royal, Newcastle 0844 811 2121

Black Coffee tours until November 2014. Further casting to be announced. For more information visit www.kenwright.com

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