Murder Is Easy 

A village is plagued by a spate of seemingly accidental deaths, but Miss Marple is convinced a more sinister hand is involved when a villager on her way to Scotland Yard is conveniently dispatched.

Director:

Hettie Macdonald

Writers:

Stephen Churchett (screenplay), Agatha Christie (novel)

Stars:

Julia McKenzie, Steve Pemberton, Shirley Henderson

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Julia McKenzie	...	Miss Marple
Steve Pemberton	...	Henry Wake
Shirley Henderson	...	Honoria Waynflete
Sylvia Syms	...	Lavinia Pinkerton
Benedict Cumberbatch	...	Luke Fitzwilliam
Lyndsey Marshal	...	Amy Gibbs
James Lance	...	Dr Geoffrey Thomas
Tim Brooke-Taylor	...	Dr Edward Humbleby
Camilla Arfwedson	...	Rose Humbleby
Hugo Speer	...	James Abbot
Anna Chancellor	...	Lydia Horton
David Haig	...	Major Hugh Horton
Margo Stilley	...	Bridget Conway
Jemma Redgrave	...	Jessie Humbleby
Russell Tovey	...	PC Terence Reed

Storyline

While traveling on a train to London, Miss Marple is told by a woman she has never met, Lavinia Pinkerton, that she is certain there have been two murders in her village of Wychwood. When Lavinia dies in what is purported to be an accident - she fell, or was pushed, down the escalator in a tube station - Miss Marple decides to visit Wychwood and see what she can find. As Miss Marple is apt to say, one English village is like another and Wychwood has its secrets like any other. The first woman to die was Florie Gibbs who, despite being experienced in such things, supposedly ate poison mushrooms she picked herself. The second was the local vicar who failed to wear his mask when using poison near his beehives. The third is a young woman who, it is said, accidentally drank hat dye instead of her cough medicine. Miss Marple finds a clue that points to a motive with origins many years before and a secret someone will do anything, including murder, to keep hidden.

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Plot Keywords:

colon in title | four word title | murder mystery | character name in title | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 July 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie Marple: Murder Is Easy

Filming Locations:

Southgate Underground Station, Southgate Circus, Southgate, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

ITV Studios,WGBH,Agatha Christie

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original 1939 novel has Luke Fitzwilliam as the chief investigator and does not feature Miss Marple at all.

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Goofs

When Lavinia falls down the escalator at the tube station, you can clearly see the big oblong shin pads underneath her tights.

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Connections

Version of Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie: Un meurtre est-il facile? (2015)

User Reviews

Such a depressing experience

Though others have already said it, and with much more detail, this is nothing like the book. Besides the character names pretty much everything is changed, and not for the better. For one thing, Miss Marple isn't in the book at all; Luke Fitzwilliam does the detecting, and it's a refreshing change. The cast does a good job and the story they come up with is fairly interesting, but Agatha could have done better. And...oh right...she did. This is one of my favorite Christie novels ever, and this adaptation could have been so great if they had just stuck to it!

And Benedict Cumberbatch would have been in it more. Sigh.