Best of Agatha Christie Miss Marple on TV

Joan Hickson wasn't the only actor who portrayed Miss Marple however, she was the best of all. Christie herself thought of Hickson as HER Miss Marple long before the beginning of the TV series. Hickson was the ideal British old lady who grew up in the countryside during the Victorian Era. She also portrayed the spinster with perfection: although never married, Miss Marple knew a lot of things about married people.

Although books were written between 1930 and 1970, the movies always depict the events in the 1950s.

Some other Miss Marple

Margaret Rutherford

She was a humorous actress, and the most hilarious Miss Marple ever. Both the stories and the old lady's personality were often changed. Miss Marple was depicted as a thin person, Rutherford wasn't thin at all. Miss Marple was also a quiet person, Rutherford had an energetic personality. All in all she was not Christie's detective amateur but she was a great actress and the movies were fun.

Geraldine McEwan

The TV series starring McKenzie were inspired from Christie's work however the plots were entirely changed while some episodes weren't even based on books including Miss Marple (for example: "Towards Zero"). Although McKenzie's hat was the most appropriate for the depiction of the Victorian spinster, the series wasn't faithful to Christie's female crime-fighter. Most characters including Miss Marple were portrayed like lunatics, the stories were entirely changed, other characters were added - most who wouldn't have been welcomed in a 1950s society - and even some turned into alcoholics.

Julia McKenzie

The newest Miss Marple is Julia McKenzie. Once again, the series includes episodes in which Marple shouldn't appear (for example "Why Don't they Ask Evans?", "The Pale Horse", etc.) The worst part of this new series lies into the fact that the producers turned the beautiful and sophisticated Julia McKenzie into a replica of Mrs Doubtfire.

Moreover, McKenzie is too young to play Miss Marple. Although Miss Marple is in her 70s, she has rheumatism, she can't move like a young woman, she's also provided a shy personality although extremely sharp and clever. The other downside of this new series is that Miss Marple acts like an actual detective.

Besides these four main Miss Marple, Angela Lansbury played the role for the movie "The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side". Ita Ever starred the old spinster in the Russian version of "A Pocket Full of Rye".

All in all if you're fan of Agatha Christie or fell for British cinema and theater, if you enjoy a good mystery, then I do recommend this TV series.

Agatha Christies most famous characters were:

• Hercule Poirot, the smartest Belgian detective who settled in England during WWI,
• Miss Marple, the old Victorian and provincial spinster,
• Tommy and Tuppence, happily married and detective as well.

When one is fan of some books, one also often wants to see real life characters taken out of those books. And this is done through the production of movies and TV series featuring those highly popular characters.

The Marple series also includes three episodes that aren't in the above mentioned DVD.

There's also a wonderful series that was made after Hercule Poirot (David Suchet performed this extremely hard role) and that is popular among Christie's fans. The first part of this series was a BBC production and included actors like Philip Jackson (Chief Inspector Japp), Pauline Moran (Miss Lemon) and Hugh Fraser (Captain Hastings).

These episodes were extremely faithful to Christie's work although Hasting shouldn't have been in all of them. The second part of the series was an ITV production and the stories were changed, some characters removed, some other added. It was hard to recognize our favorite TV series but all in all the Belgian detective movies attract worldwide fans. David Suchet is certainly the best Belgian detective ever... He actually IS Hercule Poirot...

Then there was also the Tommy and Tuppens adventures brought to life: Partners In crime is a TV series that featured a couple of amateur detective who would solve mysteries. The series was also popular although Christie didn't write a lot of books featuring the couple. Tommy and Tuppens were friends since their early childhood. After WWI, they fell in love and decided to join their forces to fight the crime.