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As Robert Powell Jesus of Nazareth, The Detectives opens a UK wide tour of the official Agatha Christie Theatre Company's 9th production, Black Coffee in Windsor photographed Robert as Poirot alongside co-stars Liza Goddard as Miss Caroline Amory and Robin McCallum as Poirot's friend and confidante Captain Arthur Hastings, OBE. The cast appeared in full costume both outside - underneath the building's iconic blue plaque - and upstairs in the quaint writing room she had specially commissioned as part of the house's refurbishment. Check out photos of the trio in costume below...

Ian McKellen mesmerised us as a classical actor, but his portrayal of Tolkien's Gandalf has made him a global superstar. Here, he talks to Euan Ferguson about wizards, why the world is a more accepting place and the joy of owning a pub

It's not quite a hole in the ground and Gandalf is not – yet – blowing complex smoke rings of dragons chasing pirate ships, but there is a still a welcomely ruminative, smoky, timeless ambience. We are sitting, Mr McKellen and I – he's not one of those who goes too big on the "Sir" stuff – in the tiny top room of the ancient waterside Limehouse pub the Grapes, which he co-bought a couple of years ago. There are candles, there are golds and reds, there's a big mutual ashtray, and outside the shaking windows the dirty Thames is growing darker, wilder and woollier by the minute.

He is talking of Dickens,...