Jason Durr prepares to star as Poirot in Black Coffee at the Oxford Playhouse

Jason Durr became a familiar face of feelgood television as the good-natured copper Mike Bradley in ITV’s long-running series Heartbeat.

Now he is showing us another firm family favourite — with the same respect for the principles of law and order — as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

The popular actor takes on the iconic role in a new production of Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee, the first play she wrote, which visits Oxford next week. Staged by the Agatha Christie Theatre Company, regular Playhouse visitors, the 1930 drama focuses on the murder on an eccentric physicist and the theft of an important scientific formula.

Jason might seem to be facing a daunting challenge, stepping from behind the giant shadows of others who have played Poirot, including Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov and, of course, David Suchet, the definitive exerciser of the “little grey cells” for 25 years. But Jason doesn’t see it that way.

“As with many great roles, many fine actors have been cast as Poirot. But I didn’t let their performances influence me. I was fortunate to meet Peter Ustinov, when he talked about the part. I have also talked to David Suchet on the subject, though I have never actually watched him as Poirot.

“Actors agree that the approach to the part is all in the writing. It is all in Agatha Christie’s novels, short stories and plays. These were my starting point, providing a clear impression of the style of performance required.

“What you are taking on with Poirot is conveying his search for the truth, his obsessive need to find out what has happened.

“As with all of Christie’s detective stories, this play is not just a whodunnit. It is also concerned with how it was done, and why. This means that the audience has a triple whammy of questions to be answered.”

So far on the tour, says Jason, the company has been playing to packed houses.

”People have a real soft spot for Poirot, as they have similarly for Heartbeat. They really look forward to seeing him and watching an Agatha Christie play.”

Preparing for the role at each performance is “a wonderful process”, Jason says.

“You spend a couple of hours getting into character, in the precise sense of the word, both mentally and physically. The famous moustache, the Belgian accent and all the pieces of the jigsaw come together; then you’re up and running and on the stage.

“You might think he is one of the more difficult parts to do; but because the central features of the character are all so well known, playing him is actually far clearer than is sometimes the case.”

Jason is in the spotlight for most of the play, which is how he likes it. “I prefer being on stage to waiting in the wings. It is far more relaxing.”

He is looking forward to acting in Oxford, which is a city he knows well, since he and his family live only an hour’s drive away in the Cotswolds.

His last appearance on the Playhouse stage was two years ago as a seducing adulterer in a production of Noël Coward’s Volcano, with Jenny Seagrove, which later transferred to the West End.

He has also worked in the city in episodes of Morse and, more recently, in its spin-off Lewis. In the first he was on the wrong side of the law — as he was in the 2009 two-part TV drama Above Suspicion. The second saw him in his more familiar televisual role, as a police officer.

As a detective, too, he shows impressive ‘form’, if that’s the appropriate word. Last year he played the most famous fictional sleuth of all — though Poirot might not agree! — in a touring production of the stage play Sherlock Holmes —The Best Kept Secret.

Black Coffee
Oxford Playhouse
August 26-30
Tickets: 01865 305305