Agatha Christie's Marple 

An elderly spinster living in the village of St. Mary Mead, helps her friends and relatives solve mysterious murders.

Stars:

Geraldine McEwan, Julia McKenzie, Stephen Churchett

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Marple 12 episodes, 2004-2007
Julia McKenzie	...	Miss Marple 11 episodes, 2008-2013

Storyline

Based on Dame Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories, the show follows the adventures of Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster living in the quiet little village of St Mary Mead. During her many visits to friends and relatives in other villages, Miss Marple often stumbles upon mysterious murders which she helps solve. Although the police are sometimes reluctant to accept Miss Marple's help, her reputation and unparalleled powers of observation eventually win them over.

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Plot Keywords:

three word series title | surname in series title | author name in series title | murder | village | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 April 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple

Filming Locations:

Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chorion, Granada International, WGBH

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min (16 episodes) 89 min (7 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first six episodes were all adaptations of Miss Marple novels by Dame Agatha Christie. Subsequent episodes were derived both from works featuring Miss Marple, but also Christie novels that did not feature the character.

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Connections

Featured in Britain's Favourite Detectives (2014)

User Reviews

Watchable, despite the blandness of the lead character

A series of adaptations of Agatha Christie novels, with Miss Jane Marple as the central character. A seemingly innocuous elderly woman with no background in criminal investigation, she has a knack for solving crimes, particularly murder.

Not in the same league as Agatha Christie's Poirot (the series starring David Suchet), but generally quite watchable. Miss Marple herself is quite bland, and certainly does not have enough colour or presence to carry an entire episode, let alone a series of 23 episodes. This is regardless of whether we are talking about the first 12 episodes, when Geraldine McEwan played Marple, or the final 11 episodes, when she was played by Julia McKenzie. McKenzie was the better of the two, having more gravitas and presence than McEwan, but neither inject much colour or engagement into proceedings.

To compensate for Marple's dullness, the main secondary characters are given depth, and are often made the focus of the episode. This includes some potentially interesting sub-plots and backstories. Marple is a fringe character for much of the episode and then swoops in towards the end to solve the crime. This strategy is not always employed, unfortunately, and, when it is, is not always done well, depending largely on the writing for the episode and the quality of the performances.

The mysteries themselves are generally quite intriguing. In some ways, this is where the Marple series is better than Poirot. Poirot mysteries were often highly complex, to the point of implausibility, with far-fetched back stories. Marple mysteries are more relatable and plausible.