Do you think Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot would have got on if they'd met?

[Believers]

I think Miss Marple would've liked Hercule, but I think it would've depended on what mood Hercule was in whether or not he liked her. He was generally very courteous, but did have his irascible moments.

<New year's resolution - get out more>

Apparently someone asked Agatha Christie this, she said Poirot wouldn't like the feeling of being patronised by a sweet little old lady. Although he'd probably have respected her intellectual ability, their worlds were too different.

There are some crossover characters though, so they could have met, in theory.

Poirot has met and collaborated with Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, on many occasions.
Ariadne Oliver has met the Reverend Dane Calthorpe and his wife in The Pale Horse.
Reverend Dane Calthorp and his wife are friends of Marple, in The Moving Finger.

Poirot met Miss Katherine Grey from The Mystery of the Blue Train, having lived in St. Mary Mead.
St. Mary Mead is of course the village where Miss Marple lives.

Poirot has met the mysterious financial master Mr. Robinson in Cat Among the Pigeons.
Mr. Robinson was involved with the goings-on in a hotel Marple was residing in, in At Bertram's Hotel.

He would be suspicious of her food, snobby about her chintzy cottage, contemptuous of her love of gossip

Miss Marple wouldn't have made Poirot a mug of builder's tea, you can guarantee that. He might not have approved of her furnishings but certainly would have appreciated that to get people to give themselves away, you have to get them to talk. He said as much himself. So while I don't see them as bosom buddies, with old-fashioned courtesy and social graces they would have got on just fine, like the professionals they are.

I enjoyed the R4 programme linked above, except for the fact that they followed ITV's horrifying lead in referring to Miss Marple as 'Marple'. <gropes for fainting couch> Her name was Miss Jane Marple. During the immensely long time she was alive, women of her class were never, ever referred to by their surnames. Perhaps in the Armed Forces, but not otherwise! It was different for men. This isn't a particularly difficult concept to grasp and it really, really grinds my gears that ITV thought having had a massive success with 'Agatha Christie's Poirot' that nobody would work out that 'Agatha Christie's Miss Marple' was going to be very similar.