Darida

Darida was a non-canonical character who was created for the film adaptation of The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman in Series 5 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot. Darida is a junior official of the Italian embassy. Earlier on, Poirot and Hastings had met the 1st Secretary of the Italian embassy to inquire about Mario Ascanio. The 1st Secretary had told Poirot that the Italian embassy had no dealings with Ascanio, a known Masnadieri. Darida later called at Whitehaven Mansions to tell Poirot that this was not entirely true. The 1st Secretary was playing by the rule book. Ascanio had indeed come to the embassy offering to sell some documents but the 1st Secretary had refused to deal with him. Darida did not know what the documents were but he would like to know. He expected that Ascanio would return to Italy as that would be the only other place he could sell the documents. Ascanio had left an address with the embassy where he could be contacted: Jenkins Hotel. Based on this information, Japp and Poirot raided the hotel and arrested Ascanio.

Darida's position in the embassy is not stated. However, given his curiosity about the documents, it is plausible to suppose that he was an intelligence agent or a representative of the secret police.

Darida is played by Alberto Janelli. This character does not occur in the original story.