This was famously the first ever mystery to feature Miss Marple. I remember reading it (like I did most of Christie books) and it was an action packed novel that marked it out as one of the best. Surprisingly when it was adapted for TV for Christmas 1986 the writers cut out a few characters, including the mysterious Dr Stone, and condensed it into a feature length mystery. However, it still makes for a thoroughly absorbing mystery full of incident.
The story begins with ordinary village life, with the Reverend Clement (Paul Eddington) called to a meeting to discuss missing church funds. At the meeting is local squire Colonel Protheroe (Robert Lang), who makes it his mission to smoke out the culprit. Indeed, Protheroe very quickly shows he is a man who makes enemies quickly, and before long he is threatening Bill Archer with jail for poaching, and his daughter Lettuce (yes, really) for posing for artist Lawrence Redding in her swimsuit (Shock! Horror! What would he make of Tara MacGowran in Murder in Eden four years later?). That's not to mention his wife's affair with the said Redding (my, he is busy), while Protheroe has a very bad reaction when he spots a mysterious woman in the village. It will come as no surprise when Protheroe is later found murdered. More inconsiderately he does it in the vicar's study, who is none too happy to find a corpse across his desk.
How it is done, and the build up to the murder is remarkably inventive. The scene where Rev Clement receives a call about a dying parisioner and then discovers that his car will not work gives you immediately a sense of foreboding as he cycles off to his destination. When he discovers the call is a hoax and the parisioner is perfectly healthy it's clear that someone wanted him out of the way for what is a cleverly plotted murder. Luckily for him (or is it?) Scotland Yard has called Det Insp Slack onto the case, who is so eager to get on with business he brusquely ejects Clement out of his own study. However, he has failed to notice a little old lady who also happened to of been passing when Clement discovered the body, and who Slack has encountered 2 years before.
As with A Murder is Announced, part of the fun of this is the humour, and there is plenty of it here. This is in part due to David Horowitz's performance as Slack. The scene when he encounteres Miss Marple in the vicarage is a joy, as he cannot believe he has yet again encountered "that little grey haired cobra", as he so amusingly calls her to his sidekick Det Sgt Lake (Ian Brimble). His barely concealed frustration at finding her on the doorstep of another crime - and in HER village of St Mary Mead - and not being able to do a thing about it makes their encounters in this very amusing indeed. But they are not the only ones having fun here. Cheryl Campbell thoroughly enjoys herself as Rev Clement's wife Griselda, whether it is her battles with her determined young cook Mary (an equally superb Rachel Weaver) or her mischievousness with the village elders. In one scene she relays a made up story to the old gossips about how the newly arrived and mysterious Mrs Lestrange was actually the wife of a missionary who was eaten on an expedition abroad - a story only interrupted by the unexpected arrival of her husband. And that scene is also a perfect rebuff to some critics who feel that Hickson's portrayal of Marple is "fluffy." The scene of her, Mrs Price-Ridley and Miss Hartnell (Rosalie Crutchley and Barbara Hicks) sat round dissecting the various village characters in the latest gossip shows Marple at her most acerbic and sceptical. And I have to say Crutchley and Hicks fit their parts to a tee, with Crutchley particularly outstanding as the formiddable Mrs Price-Ridley
Indeed, this adaptation reflects it's period look marvellously, and the passage of time with it's filmic look from back then actually adding to the feel you are viewing something from the 1930's. There is one scene of the villagers heading to church that is remarkably striking. While Rev Clement makes what proves to be a fateful sermon, his cook Mary sneaks out to leave a basket of food for her poacher boyfriend Bill Archer, while in the porch sit Mrs Lestrange and Lettuce Protheroe in quiet contemplation. It is a simple but effective scene, but quietly powerful. Norma West gives an magnetic and remarkable performance as the enigmatic Mrs Lestrange, all the more so because of her restraint. She catches your attention without dominating, but you notice her just the same. The one flaw in this adaptation is actually the casting of two of the main characters, Ann Protheroe and Lawrence Redding (Polly Adams and James Hazledine), who find themselves chief suspect for Colonel Protheroe's murder before an unlikely eye witness in Miss Marple herself prove that they couldn't of committed the crime. Both Adams and Hazledine's characters are supposed to be having an affair, but you can never believe in Adams' character being passionate due to her somewhat clipped portrayal, while Hazledine is rather anemic as Redding. It's a stumbling block in what is otherwise an excellent adaptation, even if Robert Lang overdoes the blustering as Colonel Protheroe, while Tara MacGowran makes for a rather wet Lettuce.
It might also of been intriguing to see what it would of been like had they kept the other elements that were in the book in this adaptation and made it a 3 part mystery rather than a feature length adaptation. As it is, it still makes for an incident packed whodunnit that proves thoroughly absorbing, working up to a dramatic climax that becomes thoroughly tense as Slack waits up to trap a killer who plans to murder a witness. But it's main joy is it's dialogue and humour. I particulary loved one comment by Hickson's Marple to Slack saying that "they knew I was the noticing sort of person," beautifully put for what others would term a nosey parker. And today's scriptwriters could learn a lot from these sort of programmes. That it IS possible to do a serious drama and have humour in it without affecting the subject matter. They certainly seemed to have a lot more fun back then. And that is why they remain so memorable still.
The story begins with ordinary village life, with the Reverend Clement (Paul Eddington) called to a meeting to discuss missing church funds. At the meeting is local squire Colonel Protheroe (Robert Lang), who makes it his mission to smoke out the culprit. Indeed, Protheroe very quickly shows he is a man who makes enemies quickly, and before long he is threatening Bill Archer with jail for poaching, and his daughter Lettuce (yes, really) for posing for artist Lawrence Redding in her swimsuit (Shock! Horror! What would he make of Tara MacGowran in Murder in Eden four years later?). That's not to mention his wife's affair with the said Redding (my, he is busy), while Protheroe has a very bad reaction when he spots a mysterious woman in the village. It will come as no surprise when Protheroe is later found murdered. More inconsiderately he does it in the vicar's study, who is none too happy to find a corpse across his desk.
How it is done, and the build up to the murder is remarkably inventive. The scene where Rev Clement receives a call about a dying parisioner and then discovers that his car will not work gives you immediately a sense of foreboding as he cycles off to his destination. When he discovers the call is a hoax and the parisioner is perfectly healthy it's clear that someone wanted him out of the way for what is a cleverly plotted murder. Luckily for him (or is it?) Scotland Yard has called Det Insp Slack onto the case, who is so eager to get on with business he brusquely ejects Clement out of his own study. However, he has failed to notice a little old lady who also happened to of been passing when Clement discovered the body, and who Slack has encountered 2 years before.
As with A Murder is Announced, part of the fun of this is the humour, and there is plenty of it here. This is in part due to David Horowitz's performance as Slack. The scene when he encounteres Miss Marple in the vicarage is a joy, as he cannot believe he has yet again encountered "that little grey haired cobra", as he so amusingly calls her to his sidekick Det Sgt Lake (Ian Brimble). His barely concealed frustration at finding her on the doorstep of another crime - and in HER village of St Mary Mead - and not being able to do a thing about it makes their encounters in this very amusing indeed. But they are not the only ones having fun here. Cheryl Campbell thoroughly enjoys herself as Rev Clement's wife Griselda, whether it is her battles with her determined young cook Mary (an equally superb Rachel Weaver) or her mischievousness with the village elders. In one scene she relays a made up story to the old gossips about how the newly arrived and mysterious Mrs Lestrange was actually the wife of a missionary who was eaten on an expedition abroad - a story only interrupted by the unexpected arrival of her husband. And that scene is also a perfect rebuff to some critics who feel that Hickson's portrayal of Marple is "fluffy." The scene of her, Mrs Price-Ridley and Miss Hartnell (Rosalie Crutchley and Barbara Hicks) sat round dissecting the various village characters in the latest gossip shows Marple at her most acerbic and sceptical. And I have to say Crutchley and Hicks fit their parts to a tee, with Crutchley particularly outstanding as the formiddable Mrs Price-Ridley
Indeed, this adaptation reflects it's period look marvellously, and the passage of time with it's filmic look from back then actually adding to the feel you are viewing something from the 1930's. There is one scene of the villagers heading to church that is remarkably striking. While Rev Clement makes what proves to be a fateful sermon, his cook Mary sneaks out to leave a basket of food for her poacher boyfriend Bill Archer, while in the porch sit Mrs Lestrange and Lettuce Protheroe in quiet contemplation. It is a simple but effective scene, but quietly powerful. Norma West gives an magnetic and remarkable performance as the enigmatic Mrs Lestrange, all the more so because of her restraint. She catches your attention without dominating, but you notice her just the same. The one flaw in this adaptation is actually the casting of two of the main characters, Ann Protheroe and Lawrence Redding (Polly Adams and James Hazledine), who find themselves chief suspect for Colonel Protheroe's murder before an unlikely eye witness in Miss Marple herself prove that they couldn't of committed the crime. Both Adams and Hazledine's characters are supposed to be having an affair, but you can never believe in Adams' character being passionate due to her somewhat clipped portrayal, while Hazledine is rather anemic as Redding. It's a stumbling block in what is otherwise an excellent adaptation, even if Robert Lang overdoes the blustering as Colonel Protheroe, while Tara MacGowran makes for a rather wet Lettuce.
It might also of been intriguing to see what it would of been like had they kept the other elements that were in the book in this adaptation and made it a 3 part mystery rather than a feature length adaptation. As it is, it still makes for an incident packed whodunnit that proves thoroughly absorbing, working up to a dramatic climax that becomes thoroughly tense as Slack waits up to trap a killer who plans to murder a witness. But it's main joy is it's dialogue and humour. I particulary loved one comment by Hickson's Marple to Slack saying that "they knew I was the noticing sort of person," beautifully put for what others would term a nosey parker. And today's scriptwriters could learn a lot from these sort of programmes. That it IS possible to do a serious drama and have humour in it without affecting the subject matter. They certainly seemed to have a lot more fun back then. And that is why they remain so memorable still.