Poirot's David Suchet claims Christianity is being marginalised to avoid offending other faiths

Poirot actor David Suchet has claimed that Christianity is being marginalised because people are more concerned about not offending other faiths.

He said Britain was now in danger of losing the importance of the religion.

Suchet, who is to return as Poirot in a TV adaption of Murder on the Orient Express, was confirmed into Christianity about two years ago.

In an interview, the 63-year-old star said: 'I do feel that Christianity is being marginalised by other religions in Britain.

'I won't tell you the name of it, but a charity I work for got turned down for Government funding recently, because it was a Christian charity, even though it had been funded by the Government for several years.

'Don't misunderstand me. We should embrace all religions and marginalise none. But we seem more concerned with marginalising Christianity, and not offending other faiths.

'We are in danger of losing the importance of the Christian faith in our own country.'

The actor, the brother of newsreader John Suchet, told of his fears during
an interview with Woman's Weekly magazine.

Suchet has just voiced an audio book called The Jesus Storybook Bible and has spoken candidly before about finding religion.

In an interview earlier this year, the married father of two talked about a turning point in his life in New York 20 years ago.

He said: 'I was lying in a bath in my hotel, thinking about my grandfather. And I remember thinking "Isn't it interesting that I feel my grandfather is with me and yet I don't believe in an afterlife?"

'So I went straight out and bought a Bible and read St Paul's letter to the Romans. He describes how to be as a Christian, and it slotted right into what I had been searching for: something beyond, something quite mystical, but also a way of being that I could relate to.'

And Suchet, who married in 1976, said of Christmas: 'Time with the family, my wife Sheila and children, Katherine and Robert, and their loved ones, too.'

He added: 'I always attend Midnight Mass and, ever since they were little, have told them the story of the night before Christmas. We've carried on with it well into their adult years.'

Suchet, who has played Agatha Christie's Belgian detective on ITV for 21 years, confirmed last week that he was returning for another Poirot.

Filming has already begun with an all-star cast including Dame Eileen Atkins, Samuel West, Hugh Bonneville and Barbara Hershey.

Other TV and radio performers-have spoken out about how religious faith has been marginalised in recent times.

Earlier this year Radio 2 star Jeremy Vine told the religious magazine Reform: 'You can't express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago. Arguably the parameters of what you might call "right thinking" are probably closing.

'Sadly, along with that has come the fact that it's almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God.'