Poirot and me: Samantha Bond

Agatha Christie holds special personal memories for me because my mum, a television producer called Pat Sandys, had been the first person to persaude the Agatha Christie estate to put one of her stories on TV. Up until then they had only approved films. I was a drama student at the time and I typed my mum's version of Why Didn't they Ask Evans on her little typewriter. But it's one thing typing at a kitchen table, and quite another being in front of the camera. I appeared in an early episode of Poirot 25 years ago – before I married, I remember, because I used my own engagement ring. It was some of the first telly I'd ever done and I was in awe of David. You could tell it was the beginning of something very special. The calibre of acting that was involved in them was extraordinary. And now it's become a badge for actors: you want to have been in a Poirot.