"Towards Zero" was one of the handful of novels featuring Christie's forgotten hero, the implacable Superintendant Battle.
It was a fairly easy job to erase Battle and insert Marple to fill in the empty spaces.
Geraldine McEwan was a good actress, no one disputes that. But her Marple often got shoehorned in where she didn't belong.
This is one of the less eggregious examples of shoehorning, and Miss Marple, as in a physician's hippocratic oath, does no harm. In fact, the greatest thing about the novel (and this episode) is a wonderful trick near the end that's pure Battle if bizarre Marple. Nevertheless, it works.
The novel itself was not top-tier Christie, though its premise is satisfyingly baffling.
I'm no fan of McEwan's twinkly, elfin Miss Marple, but not all her episodes are rotten. "The Sittaford Mystery" (another where she sticks her nose where it doesn't belong) is quite fun while it gleefully shreds the book. One of my favorite Christie books is THE MOVING FINGER and while I prefer the Hickson version McEwan's isn't bad and is livened by the presence of an extremely solid cast, including the ethereal Kelly Brook. Then there's "Murder at the Vicarage," another of my favorite Miss Marple titles and well done, too. The silly "A Murder is Announced" and the spooky "Sleeping Murder" are both solid productions, if too swiftly paced for some tastes.
The series as a whole doesn't stand or fall on whether Miss Marple slyly insinuates herself into stories where she should never have been invited, but whether one accepts McEwan's "kinder, gentler" take on the character. Frankly, even in the productions I like, whether genuine Marples or not, I could do without McEwan. But this is her finest hour (actually, in the second hour).
It was a fairly easy job to erase Battle and insert Marple to fill in the empty spaces.
Geraldine McEwan was a good actress, no one disputes that. But her Marple often got shoehorned in where she didn't belong.
This is one of the less eggregious examples of shoehorning, and Miss Marple, as in a physician's hippocratic oath, does no harm. In fact, the greatest thing about the novel (and this episode) is a wonderful trick near the end that's pure Battle if bizarre Marple. Nevertheless, it works.
The novel itself was not top-tier Christie, though its premise is satisfyingly baffling.
I'm no fan of McEwan's twinkly, elfin Miss Marple, but not all her episodes are rotten. "The Sittaford Mystery" (another where she sticks her nose where it doesn't belong) is quite fun while it gleefully shreds the book. One of my favorite Christie books is THE MOVING FINGER and while I prefer the Hickson version McEwan's isn't bad and is livened by the presence of an extremely solid cast, including the ethereal Kelly Brook. Then there's "Murder at the Vicarage," another of my favorite Miss Marple titles and well done, too. The silly "A Murder is Announced" and the spooky "Sleeping Murder" are both solid productions, if too swiftly paced for some tastes.
The series as a whole doesn't stand or fall on whether Miss Marple slyly insinuates herself into stories where she should never have been invited, but whether one accepts McEwan's "kinder, gentler" take on the character. Frankly, even in the productions I like, whether genuine Marples or not, I could do without McEwan. But this is her finest hour (actually, in the second hour).