The Sittaford Mystery

Episode aired Apr 30, 2006
TV-14
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

YOUR RATING

Timothy Dalton and Geraldine McEwan in The Sittaford Mystery (2006)

Agatha Christie's Marple: The Sittaford Mystery

Play trailer1:04

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Crime Drama Mystery

The death of the presumptive future Prime Minister is predicted during a séance in a snowbound country hotel, and he is found stabbed to death in his room the next morning.The death of the presumptive future Prime Minister is predicted during a séance in a snowbound country hotel, and he is found stabbed to death in his room the next morning.The death of the presumptive future Prime Minister is predicted during a séance in a snowbound country hotel, and he is found stabbed to death in his room the next morning.

Director
- Paul Unwin
Writers
- Stephen Churchett
- Agatha Christie
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Paul Unwin
Writers
- Stephen Churchett
- Agatha Christie
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
For the fifth time in twenty-five years, Robert Hardy once again plays Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Needless to say, Sir Winston is not a character in the original novel.

Goofs
This film is set in 1952. In the cottage at Exhampton, Miss Marple is seen speaking in an Ericofon single-piece telephone. But this phone wasn't put in production until 1954, and was adopted by the British Post Office as late as 1974.

Quotes
Emily Trefusis: If I were the nervous sort, I'd say there's evil in this house.
Miss Jane Marple: The house is bricks and mortar. If there's evil, it's in somebody's heart.

Crazy credits
Following the credits, there is an in memoriam title card for Michael Attwell who played Archie Stone. Attwell died in 2006, the year this film was released.

Connections
Referenced in Hard Quiz: Episode #3.4 (2018)

User reviews51

Review

Featured review

8/10

Big Budget Miss Marple

This is a big budget Miss Marple. Casting went for unusually handsome males like Timothy Dalton, Laurence Fox and James Murray. (Their unusual good looks turn out to be necessary for the plot.) The females are delightfully eccentric, including Rita Tushingham whom baby boomers will remember fondly. There are realistic looking Egyptian treasures, and two delightfully creaky English houses.

Miss Marple starts out a bit nuts. Then she disappears while others do the sleuthing. Then she comes in at the end to sort out who murdered who. That is not the usual formula. Everyone has motive to commit murder, or at least some crime. It all sorts out in the most implausibly complicated way. I think you would have to watch perhaps five times before you were sure you had all the motives and murders sorted out, including the raptor's. Can you spell coincidence?

The cinematography is done with just candles and firelight. It gives a very snowed in cosiness. The music is wonderfully spooky, not just the standard theme repeated.

This is probably my favourite Miss Marple episode.