Miss Marple

Jane Marple, usually known as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in many Agatha Christie novels.

Television and Radio

American TV was the setting for the first dramatic portrayal of Miss Marple. Gracie Fields, a legendary British actress, played the geriatric sleuth in a 1956 episode of Goodyear TV Playhouse based on A Murder Is Announced, the 1950 Christie novel.

Related Topics:
Gracie Fields - 1956 - 1950

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There was a long-running and popular BBC TV series in the 1980s with Joan Hickson, an octogenarian herself, who had appeared in a small role in the Rutherford film Murder, She Said. The consensus among Christie devotees was that hers was the definitive performance. All twelve Miss Marple novels were dramatized: The Body in the Library; The Moving Finger; A Murder Is Announced; A Pocket Full of Rye; Murder at the Vicarage; Sleeping Murder; At Bertram's Hotel; Nemesis; 4:50 from Paddington; A Caribbean Mystery; They Do It with Mirrors and The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. All these serializations were shown in the United States on the PBS Mystery!! series. It was also televised in Germany. The television show followed the plots of the books considerably more closely than did the Rutherford films.

Related Topics:
BBC - 1980s - Joan Hickson - PBS

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BBC Radio 4 also dramatised several of the books with June Whitfield as Miss Marple.

Related Topics:
BBC Radio 4 - June Whitfield

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Angela Lansbury, after playing Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd, went on to star in the TV series Murder, She Wrote as Jessica Fletcher, a novelist who solves crimes. The character was to some degree based on Miss Marple and another Christie character, Ariadne Oliver.

Related Topics:
Angela Lansbury - Murder, She Wrote - Jessica Fletcher - Ariadne Oliver

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In 2004, Granada Television, in collaboration with Agatha Christie Limited, produced four adaptations (namely The Body in the Library, Murder in the Vicarage, 4.50 from Paddington and A Murder is Announced) starring Geraldine McEwan in the title role, and also featuring Joanna Lumley, Ian_Richardson, Zoe Wanamaker, Miriam Margolyes, Janet McTeer, Derek Jacobi, Claire Skinner and Stephen Tompkinson in supporting roles.

Related Topics:
Granada Television - Agatha Christie Limited - Geraldine McEwan - Joanna Lumley - Ian_Richardson - Zoe Wanamaker - Miriam Margolyes - Janet McTeer - Derek Jacobi - Claire Skinner - Stephen Tompkinson

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