Joan Hickson gives a defining performance as the elderly spinster whose gentle demeanour conceals a razor-sharp intellect.
Jane Marple (Joan Hickson) is an unassuming resident of the picturesque English village of St. Mary Mead. When murder intrudes upon her quiet world, or that of her friends and relatives, she finds herself drawn into the subsequent investigation. While official police detectives, such as Inspector Slack (David Horovitch), often pursue more conventional lines of inquiry, Miss Marple uses her profound understanding of human nature, gleaned from a lifetime of village observation, to solve the crime. By drawing parallels between the people involved in the mystery and the archetypal characters of her village, she uncovers the truths that lie hidden beneath a veneer of respectability.
This series of twelve self-contained mysteries is regarded by many as the definitive screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novels. The production’s success is anchored by the casting of Joan Hickson, an actress Christie herself had seen in a stage play decades earlier and hoped would one day play her creation. Hickson’s performance is a study in quiet authority; she is neither a dotty eccentric nor a cosy grandmother, but an intelligent, observant woman with a shrewd, and sometimes bleak, view of the human condition. Produced with a generous budget and high production values, the serials are notable for their faithful scripts, strong supporting casts, and meticulous period detail, creating an authentic vision of a genteel, post-war Britain where murder is a shocking disruption of the social order.
Broadcast: BBC One, 12 Mysteries, 26 December 1984 – 27 December 1992
Based on the novels of: Agatha Christie
Writers include: T. R. Bowen, Julia Jones, Alan Plater, Ken Taylor
Directors include: Guy Slater, Silvio Narizzano, David Giles, Martyn Friend, Norman Stone
Producers: Guy Slater, George Gallaccio
Theme Music: Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley
Main Cast: Joan Hickson (Miss Marple)
Guest Cast includes: David Horovitch (Detective Inspector Slack), Paul Eddington (Reverend Leonard Clement), Jean Simmons (Carrie-Louise Serrocold), Joss Ackland (Lewis Serrocold), Claire Bloom (Marina Gregg), Donald Pleasence (Jason Rafiel), Peter Davison (Lance Fortescue)
