Miss Marple
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Jane Marple, usually known as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in many Agatha Christie novels.
She lives in the little village of St. Mary Mead. She looks like an ordinary spinster, in tweed and with a curiosity as wide as the world, but when it comes to solving mysteries, she turns out to have a sharp logical mind. In the detective story tradition, she often embarrasses the local "professional" police, usually by making an analogy with some village occurrence or character.
Personality
When we first meet Jane Marple she is very much the stereotypical spinster of the last century — blue-eyed and frail, wearing a black lace cap and mittens, and constantly knitting. She is also a gleeful gossip and not especially nice. The first Marple novel, The Murder at the Vicarage sees a markedly different Marple to the one who would appear in later books, as she modernized and became nicer over the years.Miss Marple's nephew, the "well-known author" Raymond West and his wife Joan (who first appeared as Joyce), a modern artist, were introduced in 1933 in The Thirteen Problems. Raymond, in particular, is overconfident of himself and dismissive of Miss Marple's mental powers, though she continually upstages him in the end. Cherry Baker lives with Miss Marple in her last years.
A Murder is Announced (1950), Agatha Christie's fiftieth novel, is regarded by some as the best Miss Marple novel, and one of the best of Christie's whodunits.
Miss Marple is able to solve difficult crimes not only because of her shrewd intelligence, but because St. Mary Mead, over her lifetime, has put on a pageant of human depravity rivaled only by that of Sodom and Gomorrah. No crime can arise without reminding Miss Marple of some parallel incident in the history of her time.
As with her other famous detective Hercule Poirot, Christie wrote a concluding novel to her Marple series, Sleeping Murder, in 1940 and saved it for her old age, causing some embarrassing discrepancies as people who were written off as dead (such as Dolly Bantry's husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry) by the time her mystery Nemesis was published, which was the preceding Marple mystery but actually the last one written, appear alive in Sleeping Murder having been resurrected from the fictional dead. Sleeping Murder was published in 1976, shortly after Christie's death, and was the last of her novels to be published, some 36 years after it was written.
Books featuring Miss Marple
- The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
- ''The Thirteen Problems (Short Story collection featuring Miss Marple, also published as The Tuesday Club of Murders.) (1933)
- The Body in the Library (1942)
- The Moving Finger (1943)
- A Murder is Announced (1950)
- They Do It with Mirrors, or Murder With Mirrors (1952)
- A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)
- 4.50 from Paddington, or What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! (1957)
- The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962)
- A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
- At Bertram's Hotel (1965)
- Nemesis (1971)
- Sleeping Murder (written around 1940, published 1976)
Books about Miss Marple
- [The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple] -- a biography by Anne Hart
Quotation
- "The young people think the old people are fools, but the old people know the young people are fools" – Miss Marple's motto, in several of the books and stories.
Movies
Although popular from her first appearance in 1930, Jane Marple had to wait thirty-two years for her first big-screen appearance; when she made it, the results were disappointing to both Christie purists and Christie herself. Murder, She Said (1962, directed by George Pollock) was the first of four British MGM productions starring Dame Margaret Rutherford, a magnificent comic actress but too boisterous and loud for the prim and birdlike character Christie created. This first film was based on the 1957 novel 4:50 from Paddington (U.S. title, What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!), and the changes made in the plot were typical of the series. In the film, Mrs. McGillicuddy does not see anything because there is no Mrs. McGillicuddy. Miss Marple herself sees apparent murder committed on a train passing hers. Likewise, it is Miss Marple herself who poses as a maid to find out the facts of the case, not a young friend of hers who has made a business of it.
The other Rutherford films (all directed by George Pollock) were Murder at the Gallop (1963), based on the 1953 Hercule Poirot novel After the Funeral; Murder Most Foul (1964), based on the 1952 Poirot novel Mrs McGinty's Dead; and Murder Ahoy (1964), not based on any Christie work. It is remarkable, though, that in Germany all of these films have reached an immense TV popularity and that Miss Marple is generally identified with Rutherford's quirky portrayal.
In 1980, Angela Lansbury played Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd (EMI, directed by Guy Hamilton), based on Christie's 1962 novel. However, Lansbury is only on screen for a short time, the bulk of the film being taken up with the machinations of an all-star cast that included Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis, and Kim Novak. Edward Fox appeared as Inspector Craddock, who did Miss Marple's legwork.
American stage and screen legend Helen Hayes portrayed Miss Marple in two American made-for-TV movies, both for CBS: A Caribbean Mystery (1983) and Murder with Mirrors (1984). Sue Grafton contributed to the screenplay of the former. Hayes's Marple was benign and chirpy.
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.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.
List of adaptations starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple
BBC Radio 4 also dramatised several of the books with June Whitfield as Miss Marple.
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.
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) for ITV1, 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.
As of 2006, four new mysteries for the second season were produced: Sleeping Murder, The Moving Finger, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, and The Sittaford Mystery. By The Pricking of my Thumbs was originally only Tommy & Tuppence, but now features Miss Marple. The Sittaford Mystery was not originally a Miss Marple book, but was adapted with many plot changes, and the identity of the killer was changed. All four episodes in the second season are scheduled to be shown on PBS's Mystery! series as "Agatha Christie's MISS MARPLE, Series 2" on Sundays (June 4-25 and July 9-23, 2006). [link]
List of adaptations starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple
| Title | UK Transmission Date | Writer | Director | Guest cast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Body in the Library | 12 December 2004 | Kevin Elyot | Andy Wilson | Miles Richardson (as Frank Jefferson), Simon Callow (as Colonel Melchett), Jack Davenport (as Superintendent Harper), James Fox (as Colonel Arthur Bantry), Joanna Lumley (as Dolly Bantry), Jamie Theakston (as Mark Gaskell), Giles Oldershaw (as Edwards), Emma Cooke (as Dinah Lee), Richard Durden (as Mr. Prescott), Adam Garcia (as Raymond Starr), Florence Hoath (as Pamela Reeves), Ben Miller (as Basil Blake), Ian Richardson (as Conway Jefferson), Tina Martin (as Middle-aged Woman), Bruce Mackinnon (as Scamper), Abigail Neale-Wilkinson (as Jesse), Anna Rawlins (as Beatrice), Robin Soans (as Dr. Haydock), Mary Stockley (as Josie Turner), Zoe Thorne (as Florence), Emma Williams (as Ruby Keene), Steven Williams (as Peter Carmody), David Walliams (as George Bartlett), Tara Fitzgerald (as Adelaide Jefferson) |
| The Murder at the Vicarage | 19 December 2004 | Stephen Churchett | Charles Palmer | Stephen Tompkinson (as DI Slack), Jane Asher (as Mrs. Lester), Jason Flemyng (as Lawrence Redding), Herbert Lom (as Augustin Duffosse), Miriam Margolyes (as Mrs. Price-Ridley), Tim McInnerny (as Reverend Leonard Clement), Janet McTeer (as Anne Protheroe), Robert Powell (as Dr. Haydock), Rachael Stirling (as Griselda Clement), Mark Gatiss (as Ronald Hawes), Emily Bruni (as Helene Duffosse), Jana Carpenter (as May Ainsworth), Stephen Churchett (as Coroner), Christina Cole (as Lettice Protheroe), Paul Hawkyard (as Frank Tarrant), Siobhan Hayes (as Mary Hill), Jenny Howe (as Old Hall Maid), Julian Morris (as Dennis Clement), John Owens (as Photographer), Angela Pleasence (as Miss Hartnell), Ruth Sheen (as Mrs. Tarrant), Julie Cox (as Young Miss Marple), Marc Warren (as Captain Ainsworth) |
| 4.50 from Paddington | 26 December 2004 | Stephen Churchett | Andy Wilson | Amanda Holden (as Lucy Eyelesbarrow), Pam Ferris (as Elspeth McGillicuddy), John Hannah (as Inspector Tom Campbell), Niamh Cusack (as Emma Crackenthorpe), Celia Imrie (as Madame Joilet), Griff Rhys Jones (as Dr. John Quimper), David Warner (as Luther Crackenthorpe), Jenny Agutter (as Agnes Crackenthorpe), Rob Brydon (as Inspector Awdry), Tasha Bertham (as Olga), Charlie Creed-Mills (as Harold Crackenthorpe), Ben Daniels (as Alfred Crackenthorpe), Rose Keegan (as Lady Alice), Michael Landes (as Bryan Eastley), Meritxell Lavanchy (as Anna Stravinska), Toby Marlow (as James Stoddard-West), Neve McIntosh (as Lady Strickland-West), Ciarán McMenamin (as Cedric Crackenthorpe), Kurtis O'Brien (as Alexander Eastley), Tim Stern (as Steward), Pip Torrens (as Noel Coward) |
| A Murder is Announced | 2 January 2005 | Stewart Harcourt | John Strickland | Zoë Wanamaker (as Letitia Blacklock), Alexander Armstrong (as DI Craddock), Elaine Page (as Dora Bunner), Virginia McKenna (as Belle Goedler), Frances Barber (as Lizzie Hinchcliffe), Cherie Lunghi (as Sadie Swettenham), Christian Coulson (as Edmund Swettenham), Richard Dickson (as Mr. Rowlandson), Matthew Goode (as Patrick Simmons), Sienna Guillory (as Julia Simmons), Keeley Hawes (as Philippa Haymes), Gerard Horan (as Sergeant Fletcher), Nicole Lewis (as Myrna Harris), Lesley Nicol (as Nurse McClelland), Christian Pederson (as Rudi Scherz), Robert Pugh (as Colonel Archie Easterbrook), Claire Skinner (as Amy Murgatroyd), Catherine Tate (as Mitzi Kosinski) |
| Sleeping Murder | 5 February 2006 | Stephen Churchett | Edward Hall | Phil Davis (as Dr. James Kennedy), Dawn French (as Janet Erskine), Paul McGann (as Dickie Erskine), Una Stubbs (as Mrs. Pagett), Peter Serafinowicz (as Walter Fane), Sarah Parish (as Eve Ballantyne), Helen Coker (as Lily Tutt), Nickolas Grace (as Lionel Luff), Anna-Louise Plowman (as Helen Marsden), Richard Bremmer (as Mr. Sims), Julian Wadham (as Kelvin Halliday), Martin Kemp (as Jackie Afflick), Sophia Myles (as Gwenda Halliday), Harry Treadaway (as George Erskine), Mary Healey (as Shop Assistant), Greg Hicks (as Ferdinand), Vincent Leigh (as Jim Tutt), Geraldine Chaplin (as Mrs. Fane), Russ Abbot (as CI Arthur Primer), Harriet Walter (as the Duchess of Malfi), Emilio Doorgasingh (as Sergeant Desai), Aidan McArdle (as Hugh Hornbeam), Darren Carnall (as Dresser) |
| The Moving Finger | 12 February 2006 | Kevin Elyot | Tom Shankland | Angela Curran (as Miss Ginch), Rosalind Knight (as Partridge), Imogen Stubbs (as Mona Symmington), Sean Pertwee (as Dr. Owen Griffith), Ellen Capron (as Agnes), Keith Allen (as Inspector Graves), Frances de la Tour (as Maud Dane Calthrop), Stephen Churchett (as Coroner), Thelma Barlow (as Emily Barton), Jessica Stevenson (as Amy Griffith), John Sessions (as Cardew Pye), Emilia Fox (as Joanna Burton), Kelly Brook (as Elsie Holland), Harry Enfield (as Richard Symmington), Ken Russell (as Reverend Dane Calthrop), Talulah Riley (as Megan Hunter), James D'Arcy (as Jerry Burton) |
| By the Pricking of My Thumbs | 19 February 2006 | Stewart Harcourt | Peter Medak | Greta Scacchi (as Tuppence Beresford), Anthony Andrews (as Tommy Beresford), Clare Holman (as Miss Packard), Miriam Karlin (as Marjorie Moody), O-T Fagbenle (as Chris Murphy), Jody Halse (as Amos Perry), Josie Lawrence (as Hannah Beresford), Michael Begley (as Ethan Maxwell), Brian Conley (as Eric Johnson), Eliza Bennett (as Nora Bennett), Florence Strickland (as Jane Eyre), Patrick Barlow (as Mr.Timothy), Lia Williams (as Nellie Bligh), Steven Berkoff (as Freddie Eccles), Oliver Jordan (as Young Ethan), Michael Maloney (as Dr. Joshua Waters), Leslie Phillips (as Sir Philip Starke), Chloe Pennington (as Young Hannah), Michelle Ryan (as Rose Waters), Claire Bloom (as Aunt Ada), June Whitfield (as Mrs. Lancaster), Charles Dance (as Septimus Bligh) |
| The Sittaford Mystery | 30 April 2006 | Stephen Churchett | Paul Unwin | Carey Mulligan (as Violet Willett), Patricia Hodge (as Mrs. Evadne Willett), Rita Tushingham (as Miss Caroline Percehouse), Michael Brandon (as Martin Zimmerman), James Wilby (as Stanley Kirkwood), Michael Attwell (as Archie Stone), Jeffrey Kissoon (as Ahmed Ghai), Laurence Fox (as James Pearson), Ian Hallard (as Reporter), Robert Hickson (as Arthur Hopkins), Matthew Kelly (as Donald Jones), Robert Hardy (as Winston Churchill), Paul Kaye (as Dr. Ambrose Burt), James Murray (as Charles Burnaby), Mel Smith (as John Enderby), Zoe Telford (as Emily Trefusis), Timothy Dalton (as Clive Trevelyan) |
In 2004, NHK (a Japanese TV network) produced a 39 episode anime series titled Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple (アガサ・クリスティーの名探偵ポワロとマープル, Agasa Kurisutii no Meitantei Powaro to Maapuru), as well as a manga series by the same title released starting in 2005. The series ran from July 4, 2004 through May 15, 2005, and is now being shown as reruns on NHK and other networks in Japan. Poirot was voiced by Kōtarō Satomi (里見 浩太朗, Satomi Kōtarō) and Miss Marple was voiced by Kaoru Yachigusa (八千草 薫, Yachigusa Kaoru).
External links
- [itv.com - Drama - Miss Marple]
- ["Agatha Christie's MISS MARPLE, Series 2" (2006)]
- [British Film Institute Screen Online (1980s TV adaptations)]
- ["Miss Marple" on imdb.com]
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