Start of the Miss Marple series with Joan HICKSON
With "The Body in the Library" the time had come: little by little, all of Agatha CHRISTIE's novels were filmed for television with Miss Marple in the leading role. What was special was that they stuck very closely to the literary originals. And Joan HICKSON simply came closest to the character of Miss Marple. The three-part series was shown in the United Kingdom at Christmas 1984 and from August 1986 in the third programs of the West German television company ARD.
A scantily clad dead woman is found in the library of the rich Bantrys. Nobody knows how this young woman got there. Suspicion falls all too easily on the conservative Colonel Bantry (Moray WATSON). His wife Dolly (Gwen WATFORD) is desperate. She asks her good friend Jane Marple (Joan HICKSON) for help. The two women stay together in a beach hotel where the murdered woman - as we now know - worked as a dancer.
A tableau of the society of the United Kingdom at that time is drawn in a wonderfully British way and with nostalgic charm. The novel was published in 1942, which roughly corresponds to the plot. Agatha CHRISTIE's novels are always seismographs of actual events, which also comes into play in the television adaptations that followed. Lots of suspects, strange complications, but through calm thinking and observation, Miss Marple gets to the bottom of what's happening.
The actors are all excellent, with Jess CONRAD as the muscular tennis coach and Sting's wife Trudie STYLER as the dashing Josie Turner standing out a little. The unfortunate Dolly Bantry would then make another appearance in THE MIRROR CRACKD... (1992).
A wonderful pleasure! Especially if you read the novel 35 years ago and have already forgotten the ending!
With "The Body in the Library" the time had come: little by little, all of Agatha CHRISTIE's novels were filmed for television with Miss Marple in the leading role. What was special was that they stuck very closely to the literary originals. And Joan HICKSON simply came closest to the character of Miss Marple. The three-part series was shown in the United Kingdom at Christmas 1984 and from August 1986 in the third programs of the West German television company ARD.
A scantily clad dead woman is found in the library of the rich Bantrys. Nobody knows how this young woman got there. Suspicion falls all too easily on the conservative Colonel Bantry (Moray WATSON). His wife Dolly (Gwen WATFORD) is desperate. She asks her good friend Jane Marple (Joan HICKSON) for help. The two women stay together in a beach hotel where the murdered woman - as we now know - worked as a dancer.
A tableau of the society of the United Kingdom at that time is drawn in a wonderfully British way and with nostalgic charm. The novel was published in 1942, which roughly corresponds to the plot. Agatha CHRISTIE's novels are always seismographs of actual events, which also comes into play in the television adaptations that followed. Lots of suspects, strange complications, but through calm thinking and observation, Miss Marple gets to the bottom of what's happening.
The actors are all excellent, with Jess CONRAD as the muscular tennis coach and Sting's wife Trudie STYLER as the dashing Josie Turner standing out a little. The unfortunate Dolly Bantry would then make another appearance in THE MIRROR CRACKD... (1992).
A wonderful pleasure! Especially if you read the novel 35 years ago and have already forgotten the ending!