Well I never !
Robert Powell , Tim McInnery , Derek Jacobi , Janet McTeer and Rachel Tier all do a very good job in a well filmed attempt to update the Miss Marple franchise . Geraldine McKewan is very brave to try and follow on after Joan Hickson and both of them have the merit of looking and sounding like the Miss Marple of the novels . It is a stunning TV Movie but the excecutions at the end are a bit distressing . But it does point out that thoughts of adultery & murder can give birth to death if not rooted out by a desire to stand before Our Lord in good conscience . In a way it is pleasing that Agatha Christie's works are being adapted for a modern early 21st Century audience but the harrowing conclusion of this episode could have been made less graphic by just having Miss Marple reading of the hanging's in the paper and then the end credits rolling as she prays some devotions . You can make a point without resorting to a Channel 4 / Sky style fetish for shocking people . Other than that the TV movie is broadly faithful to the novel and the cast does a great job . I wonder what David Horrovitch made of the re-interpretation of Inspector Slack ? The comic bombast was still there !

BEST OF THE SERIES SO FAR
This is the best adaptation in the series, so far. Forget Agatha Christie and Joan Hickson (and even Margaret Rutherford) and just enjoy the film in its own right.

Best of the series
This was the best of the series, for me. Really don't understand the people who harp on about how much better the original was; in this case, the original was inferior. Joan Hickson was the definitive Miss Marple (and I can picture her in these scripts doing just as fine a job), but this version brought out the psychology of the characters so much better and presented a much more rounded story. Particularly striking was the marvellous use of colour throughout, contributing to a spine chilling ending. Footnote: I disagree with the previous reviewer's opinion of the casting of the vicar and his wife - I thought they were wonderful, loved them both.

Brillant adaption for the wrong reasons
This 2004 adaption of the classic Agatha Christie is well up to the mark, but I can't help feeling if the 1986 Joan Hickson version was far better, because Stephen Churchett's adaption seems to lose all of its gloss, as with TR Bowen's adaption which was in my opinion, well-researched, and closer to Christie's book.

Geraldine McEwan is excellent as Marple, and the only other notable exceptions are Robert Powell as Dr Haydock, and Stephen Tomkinson as DI Slack.

The other parts are somewhat miscast : Tim McInnery, and Rachel Stirling as the Reverend, and Mrs Clement (the late Paul Eddington, and the wonderful Cheryl Campbell were more suitably cast in the 1986 BBC adaption) . Jane Asher as an unmemorable Mrs Lestrange playing the character somewhat unpleasant making Norma West's original portrayal of the character far more believable, and understandable to viewers which is sadly lacking in Churchett's screenplay.

There are so many incosistencies in the screenplay including Mrs Lestrange's plight with the ITV Version potraying the characters as unsympathetically as possible making the BBC Version compulsive viewing. Although 20 years apart, ITV should have learnt valuable lessons fromm the BBC in adapting the Marple books. The 2nd series of Marple is a marked improvement compared to the first.

So what went wrong? A number of things, mainly relating to the screenplay which should have been researched better, but this is to judge it too harshly, it still brilliant to watch, and Geraldine McEwan is the best thing in it.

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