Hercule Poirot met his lifelong friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, and solved the first of his cases to be published, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles". It is clear that Hastings and Poirot are already friends when they meet in Chapter 2 of the novel, as Hastings tells Cynthia that he has not seen him for "some years". Particulars such as the date of 1916 for the case and that Hastings had met Poirot in Belgium, are given in "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case", Chapter 1. After that case, Poirot apparently came to the attention of the British secret service and undertook cases for the
Poirot Investigates Hercule Poirot to the literary world. "The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim" was presented on television as a thirty-minute play by CBS as an episode in the series "General Electric Theater" on 1 April 1962 under the title of "Hercule Poirot". Introduced by Ronald Reagan and directed by John Brahm, the adaptation starred Martin Gabel as Poirot. The program was done as a pilot for a series that did not happen; instead it was the debut of the character on English-language television. An earlier program starring José Ferrer as Hercule Poirot had been filmed by MGM but never aired and in