Marple: Ordeal by Innocence (TV 2007)

Old wounds are reopened for the Argyle family when a man suddenly turns up after being abroad and claims that the black sheep of the family could not have murdered its tyrannical matriarch.

Director:

Moira Armstrong

Writers:

Agatha Christie (novel), Stewart Harcourt (screenplay)

Stars:

Geraldine McEwan, Juliet Stevenson, Denis Lawson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Marple
Juliet Stevenson	...	Gwenda Vaughn
Denis Lawson	...	Leo Argyle
Alison Steadman	...	Kirsten Lindstrom
Richard Armitage	...	Philip Durrant
Stephanie Leonidas	...	Hester Argyle
Lisa Stansfield	...	Mary Durrant
Burn Gorman	...	Jacko Argyle
Jane Seymour	...	Rachel Argyle
Tom Riley	...	Bobby Argyle
Reece Shearsmith	...	Inspector Huish
Julian Rhind-Tutt	...	Dr Arthur Calgary (as Julian Rhind Tutt)
Bryan Dick	...	Micky Argyle
Gugu Mbatha-Raw	...	Tina Argyle (as Gugu Mbatha Raw)
Andrea Lowe	...	Maureen

Storyline

Miss Marple is invited to the wedding of a friend, but the gaieties are interrupted when a stranger arrives; he provides the missing evidence which proves that the black sheep of the family, Jacko, was wrongfully hanged for murder. This raises the question of who in the household did kill the cold-hearted mistress of the house two years previously. As usual, Miss Marple is needed to uncover the hatred, jealousy, lust etc. behind the family's facade and sort out the threads of the mystery.

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Plot Keywords:

miss marple | wedding | murder | secretary | adoptive mother | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 August 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Miss Marple - Az alibi

Filming Locations:

Nether Winchendon House, Nether Winchendon, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Agatha Christie, ITV Productions, WGBH

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

A modern-day motorhome can be seen in the background over Gwenda's shoulder as the camera pans round when she meets Miss Marple at her arrival.

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Connections

Version of Ordeal by Innocence (1984)

User Reviews

This Series Keeps Sinking Lower, If That's Possible

I watched "Ordeal by Innocence" for the first time last night on PBS. Again, a group of scriptwriters, who think they can do better than Agatha Christie, have slaughtered another one of her books. Again, the "mystery" does not engage the watcher because the characters are not developed enough to show any remotely interesting drama. Again, the title is misleading from the start because this is not Agatha Christie's mystery as she wrote it and it's unrecognizable to the book. While I wouldn't have a problem with some changes and even looked forward to this series in the beginning, it's just a dreadful mess.

As I've watched this Miss Marple series unfold, I've notice that they've made Miss Marple more frail, more feeble, more twittering and twinkling as time goes by. This is both a physical and intellectual transformation. In Bertram's Hotel (shown just before this one), she looked very poor indeed. In "Ordeal" (appropriately named), she's dressed like a homeless waif and acts like she's suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. This crew does not allow Geralding McEwan to show the intelligence and cunning that Miss Marple had, even as an elderly spinster. The degradation of her character as time goes by is shocking. Her makeup is dreadful and makes her look even more like a simpleton. One of my favorite mystery characters and few Females in the mystery genre, is disappearing. If you watched "Bertram's Hotel," you'll know this is a truism, because they actually pushed Miss Marple aside to let the young maid do the detection and summation of the crime.

A new group bought controlling interest in Agatha Christie Ltd, so that explains the difference between previous and current productions. Obviously the group owning rights to Christie's books are mindless, unimaginable twits.