Agatha Christie Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (TV 2006)

Miss Marple joins forces with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to find the murderer of Tommy's Aunt Ada.

Director:

Peter Medak

Writers:

Stewart Harcourt (screenplay), Agatha Christie (based on the novel by)

Stars:

Geraldine McEwan, Chloe Pennington, Oliver Jordan

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Marple
Chloe Pennington	...	Young Hannah
Oliver Jordan	...	Young Ethan
Anthony Andrews	...	Tommy / Tommy Beresford
Greta Scacchi	...	Tuppence Beresford
Clare Holman	...	Miss Packard
Miriam Karlin	...	Marjorie Moody (as Majorie Moody)
June Whitfield	...	Mrs. Lancaster
Claire Bloom	...	Aunt Ada
Steven Berkoff	...	Mr. Eccles
Patrick Barlow	...	Mr. Timothy
O.T. Fagbenle	...	Chris Murphy (as O-T Fagbenle)
Jody Halse	...	Amos Perry
Josie Lawrence	...	Hannah Beresford
Michael Maloney	...	Dr. Joshua Waters

Storyline

When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her nursing home, Tuppence is concerned by the odd behavior of some staff and residents. So when Tuppence hears about Aunt Ada's sudden death and the disappearance of her friend Mrs Lancaster, she realizes her concerns were right. Tuppence meets Miss Marple and together they follow a path of clues that lead them to the Norfolk village of Farrell St Edmund, where they find a community guarding an array of secrets. Only by getting to the bottom of these secrets do they begin to unravel the truth about the mystery of Aunt Ada's death and Mrs Lancaster's disappearance.

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Plot Keywords:

miss marple | tommy and tuppence | cake | painting | love triangle | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 February 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie - Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Filming Locations:

Loseley Park, Guildford, Surrey, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Granada, WGBH Boston, Agatha Christie

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Miss Marple does not appear in Agatha Christie's original novel, which was an adventure featuring her other sleuths, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. In order to make the story part of the Marple series, the time period was moved from post-war to sometime near the end of the war. This conveniently places Tommy still in the military intelligence service abroad, and his part of the story was re-written for Miss Marple.

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Goofs

This episode is set somewhere in the late 40s, early 50s (Polo mints were first made in 1948). Miss Marple requests the taxi driver to take them to "the train station". The expression "train station" has only been in common use in the last few years, it's certain Miss Marple would have said "railway station".

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Quotes

Septimus Bligh: Why do you drink?
Tuppence Beresford: Why do you?
Septimus Bligh: [Bitterly] Because life is empty of meaning.

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Connections

Version of Mon petit doigt m'a dit... (2005)

User Reviews

Unbelievably Bad

Fortunately Dame Agatha didn't have to live to see what others have done to her novel. The charming Tommy and Tuppence of the novels and the TV series turn into absolute rotters in this discouraging epic. There is absolutely no chemistry between them. Tuppence is a rather stupid lush who stumbles about from one bottle to another throughout the film while Tommy is shown to be an uptight, snobbish and rather distant husband who in this film has little to do. Rather than letting Tommy and Tuppence solve this mystery on their own, as they do in the novel, the producers chose instead to ship Tommy out of the country and let Jane Marple step in to help guide the foggy Tuppence through to the bitter end. Because of these facts and perhaps the director, nobody looked remotely real and their acting was...well, "acting". I realize the Marple series has done well over the years, but to take a perfectly good mystery and add Miss Marple to it. Well, the only persons who would do that would produce "The Sittaford Mystery", in which they did the same thing. Of course, that wasn't enough for them; they even changed the murderer. Since they don't want to stick to Dame Agatha's stories, why don't they just write their own versions and admit they're only borrowing a well-known detective to help with sales.