‘Hercule’ Adds ‘Rivals’ & ‘Call the Midwife’ Stars to Guest List

BritBox and the BBC have revealed further casting today for the forthcoming hot Hercule reboot of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, giving us a clearer sense of what the new series will be like.

The series already announced a round of high-profile castings back in early August 2026, when filming first kicked off in the U.K. At the time, we were under the impression the nearly all-A-list group would be spread across the series’ six episodes, covering three of Christie’s novels. However, that turns out not to be the case; those first ten guest stars were only for the series’ opening two-part mystery, Lord Edgware Dies (originally published in the U.S. as Thirteen at Dinner).

This new batch – again ten guest stars in all – are for the second two-part mystery that will air as Episodes 3 and 4, Peril at End House. The novel is considered one of Christie’s cleverest solutions to a mystery, even if it is not nearly as tightly plotted or famous as Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None.

It is worth noting that neither of these novels is among Christie’s earliest Hercule Poirot stories from her first decade of writing. Lord Edgware was published in 1933 and was the seventh Poirot novel in the original chronology; Peril at End House arrived the year before in 1932 as the sixth*. The third and final mystery to be adapted has not yet been announced.

(*The current accepted chronology adds in the short story collection Poirot Investigates, and the 1930 stage play Black Coffee, bumping these up to the ninth and eighth Poirot stories, respectively.)

Here’s the series synopsis:

Hercule chronicles the story of the world’s greatest detective - and how he became it. The series is an intimate study of Hercule Poirot the man and an epic portrait of Britain between the wars. The series will center around three of Christie’s early stories, while also introducing Hercule Poirot to future friends and allies and one particular nemesis…

The new guest cast joining Edward Bluemel (My Lady Jane) as Young Hercule Poirot for his second two-part mystery includes Katherine Parkinson (Rivals), Ralf Little (Death in Paradise), Natalie Quarry (Call the Midwife), Toby Stephens (Jane Eyre), Jessica Alexander (Amadeus), Honor Swinton Byrne (War), Omari Douglas (Black Doves), Paul Forman (Riches), and Arthur Hughes (Shardlake). The series will also feature River Medway in the RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant’s first dramatic small-screen outing.

Season 1 guest cast for what we now know is the series’ opening mystery includes Henry Ashton (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder), James D’Arcy (Oppenheimer), Calvin Demba (Supacell), Phil Dunning (Smoggie Queens), Jack Gleeson (House of Guinness), Tamsin Greig (Riot Women), James Nesbitt (Bloodlands), Guy Remmers (The Buccaneers), Rebecca Rittenhouse (Four Weddings & a Funeral) and Mawaan Rizwan (The Split Up).

Benji Walters (Code of Silence) adapted the six-part series. Directors Jonny Campbell (Am I Being Unreasonable), Chanya Button (Doctor Who) and Alrick Riley (Bridgerton) each helm one of the season’s two-part mysteries, with Charlie Palmer as producer. Walters and Campbell executive produce alongside Prichard for Agatha Christie Limited, Rebecca Durbin & Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen, Nick Lambon for the BBC, and Robert Schildhouse, Jon Farrar & Stephen Nye for BritBox.

Filming for Hercule is now underway in Liverpool. The series is expected to debut on the BBC and BritBox in 2027.

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