Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: 4:50 from Paddington (TV 1987)
"4.50 from Paddington" (original title)

A friend of Miss Marple's sees a woman being strangled in a passing train. When police cannot find a body and doubt the story, Miss Marple enlists professional housekeeper, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to go undercover.

Director:

Martyn Friend

Writers:

Agatha Christie (novel), T.R. Bowen (screenplay)

Stars:

Joan Hickson, Juliette Mole, David Beames

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joan Hickson	...	Miss Jane Marple
Juliette Mole	...	Anna Stravinska
David Beames	...	Bryan Eastley
Mona Bruce	...	Mrs. McGillicuddy
Nicholas Blane	...	Paddington Porter
Katy Jarrett	...	Mary
Leslie Adams	...	Desk Sergeant
David Horovitch	...	Detective Inspector Slack
Ian Brimble	...	Detective Sergeant Lake
Rhoda Lewis	...	Mrs. Brogan
Jill Meager	...	Lucy Eyelesbarrow
Joanna David	...	Emma Crackenthorpe
Maurice Denham	...	Luther Crackenthorpe
Andrew Burt	...	Dr. John Quimper
Pamela Pitchford	...	Mrs. Kidder

Storyline

When Miss Marple's visiting friend sees a woman being strangled on a passing train, they immediately report it to the police. Inspector Slack sees Miss Marple as a bit of a busy body and drops the investigation after only a few days. Miss Marple however determines that there is only one spot along the line where a body could have been dumped and it happens to be very near the Crackenthorpe estate. She asks a professional housekeeper, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to go there undercover as a domestic. She soon finds the dead woman's body at which time the police take on a renewed interest but it is left to Miss Marple to solve the mystery.

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Plot Keywords:

miss marple | train | estate | sarcophagus | manor house | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK Australia USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 February 1987 (UK)

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: 4:50 from Paddington

Filming Locations:

Marylebone Station, Marylebone, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

7 Network, A&E Television Networks, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Miss Marple goes to meet Lucy for the first time at her club the interior is the same location used for Bertram's Hotel in "At Bertram's Hotel".

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Quotes

Miss Jane Marple: But of course you must go on searching, Inspector! Now you might say that Elspeth is not a sophisticated person, but, I assure you, she has both feet firmly on the ground. She saw what she saw!

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Connections

Version of Crime Is Our Business (2008)

User Reviews

Missed Train

The Marple stories - many of them - are lessons in narrative placement. We start with the basic notion of the mystery narrator shuffling through multiple created realities looking for what makes sense. Marple turns that into the clever notion of detection as gossip: the constructed realities of small town busybodies imposing a simple order on what they hear.

Read this story and see how wonderfully it plays this intelligent game. Now watch this movie version and see how it completely loses this neat idea.

Instead, they follow the BBC rule of exploiting interesting faces and spaces. Lucy IS lovely, but the magic of the mystery is long gone.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.