john_amend_all

Reverend Harmon: A man dies in highly suspicious circumstances here in Chipping Cleghorn and suddenly Aunt Jane is coming to stay.
Mrs Harmon: Yes, I noticed that, too.

Rudi Scherz is a Swiss immigrant of less than sterling honesty, working as a hotel waiter. Then, out of the blue, he places an advertisement in the newspaper announcing a murder at Little Paddocks in the village of Chipping Cleghorn. When the curious villagers show up at the indicated time, the lights go out and he bursts in, wearing a mask and ordering them to stick their hands up. Seconds later, he's lying dead on the floor.

As with all of the first four stories, I've read the book enough times to know the plot by heart, and the televised adaptation keeps to it extremely faithfully: the cook Mitzi is renamed to Hannah (and the cat Tiglath Pileser to Delilah), presumably to keep up to the rule that at least one character must be renamed in each serial. The Patrick/Emma relationship also becomes requited.

The police detective for this story is Inspector Craddock, played by John Castle. I kept thinking I recognised him; IMDB says he was in episodes of I, Claudius, Poirot and Inspector Morse that I've seen, so maybe I remember him from one of those. I also think he'd have made an interesting Doctor.

Every time our paths have crossed I have defeated you.

The DVDs I'm watching this series on have a themed design: a large picture of Joan Hickson, plus smaller ones of two or three guest stars from the story in question. The one for A Pocket Full of Rye, for example, shows Peter Davison and Tom Wilkinson. This DVD is the exception. Only one guest star appears: Kevin Whately, who plays Sergeant Fletcher. It's entirely possible that this role is what got him the part of Lewis in Inspector Morse, and, watching him, it's pretty much impossible not to think of him as Lewis.

Other familiar names were Sylvia Syms (Mrs Pritchard from Ghost Light) as Mrs Easterbrook; Samantha Bond of SJA and Downton Abbey fame, perfectly cast as Julia Simmons; Joan Sims as Miss Murgatroyd; and David Collings as the Reverend Julian Harmon. Another name jumped out at me as I watched the credits: The designer for the story was Raymond 'Daleks' Cusick.

"If I had shot at you that night... I wouldn't have missed."

This being a three-parter, the book is adapted at its full length and with every last detail intact. The first episode feels a little leisurely as a result, in the sequence where Inspector Craddock is taking statements from witnesses who all say the same thing, but the last two build up very nicely. The second episode also has some beautiful scenery porn in the sequence where Craddock visits Belle Goedler in her Scottish castle.

No expense spared.

I don't know if my readers (if any) would agree, but to me this adaptation seems to be a notch above the other ones I've seen so far. Joan Hickson gets more of an opportunity to show the hidden steel below the fluffy exterior, at one point commandeering ~~Lewis~~ Fletcher to lay another risky trap for the murderer.

We must do something, Sergeant.

I also think Ursula Howells deserves a mention for her standout performance as Miss Blacklock; she does an excellent job of portraying her air of command and, later on, her vulnerability.

"Why should anyone want to kill me?"

Cliffhangers: Episode 1 ends with Miss Marple, having politely turned Inspector Craddock's investigation inside-out, insisting that one of the people in Chipping Cleghorn is a murderer. At the end of Episode 2, she learns of the death of Dora Bunner, and muses: Was she killed because she was so innocent?

One non-cliffhanger moment that I couldn't bear to watch on initial broadcast was the murder of Miss Murgatroyd. I was able to watch it this time, but still... <shudder>.

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