View Full Version : Miss Marple Returns!!!!!!!!!
Greetings Programs! :wave:
I have stated before My favourite TV detective is Miss Marple But according to The BBC, ITV is going to remake it. :eek:
Here is the story on the BBC web site;
:doh:
Geraldine McEwan is ITV's crime-fighting pensioner.
It seems like only yesterday that Joan Hickson hung up her handbag as Miss Marple. She went out with the immortal words, "More, tea vicar?" in 1992's The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side.
Hickson, who died in 1998, took on the role in 1984, aged 78.
She's being replaced by a mere 72 year old, the formidable Geraldine McEwan. ITV have lined her up to star in four films - The Body In The Library, A Murder Is Announced, Murder At The Vicarage and 4.50 From Paddington.
It looks as though the Marple cannon will receive the same treatment as the channel's superb Poirot range, with a fruity cast being wheeled out - including Simon Callow, Ian Richardson and Jack Davenport.
In the press release, Geraldine McEwan said: "With Miss Marple I feel that I have been entrusted with a national treasure of whom I already feel both protective and extremely fond."
Previous Miss Marples have included Angela Lansbury (slightly squiffy), Helen Hayes (rather frail), and Margaret Rutherford (the maddest thing on screen ever, like a petticoat tornado).
To the Cult team, the new series is lovely, but odd news - strangely like announcing that they're going to remake Inspector Morse with David Jason. Joan Hickson was, after all, Christie's own choice for the role of Miss Marple. And, well, Alan Plater's A Murder Is Announced was brilliant.
We're not just saying that 'cos the last series was on the BBC - we're just hoping that the ITV remake has something new to offer - perhaps tackling the more curious short stories.
Let's just hope someone brings the Hickson ones out here on DVD quickly.
PS. We've received the following letter:
Dear ITV,
Thank you for casting Joanna Lumley as Miss Marple's batty best friend Dolly Bantree.
Love,
The Gays
:suspect:
Is this Good News or Bad :thinking:
But I agree Bring out Joan Hickson's Miss Marple on DVD Now! :thumbs:
What do you programs think? :searchme:
End of Line. :wave:
Grandmaster
10-05-2004, 22:37
Oh god, you're not still going on about "Programs" are you? :oh-hum:
Joan Hickson was the definitive Miss Marple - this new show is pointless.
Originally posted by Grandmaster
Oh god, you're not still going on about "Programs" are you? :oh-hum:
Joan Hickson was the definitive Miss Marple - this new show is pointless.
Exactly what I was going to say.
:notworthy
cjanderson
11-05-2004, 08:31
agreed, pointless remake, they still show the joan hickson stuff on tv and it fells modern and fine, as this sort of stuff is set 50 years ago in a twee-er and villagagey place.
WHo watched the remake of Death on the Nile over easter? i saw the classic Peter ustinoff version and the new one came knowhere near that.
As a slight aside does anyone know how many shows Joan Hickson made? We have been watching them on UK Gold & UK Drama but as they repeat them a lot we aren;t sure whther we've seen them all.
As to the ITV I shan't bother at all remakes are totally unndeede
carryonline
11-05-2004, 09:48
According to TVTome:
M-1 26-Dec-1984 The Body in the Library
M-2 21-Feb-1985 The Moving Finger
M-3 28-Feb-1985 A Murder is Announced
M-4 07-Mar-1985 A Pocketful of Rye
M-5 25-Dec-1986 The Murder at the Vicarage
M-6 11-Jan-1987 Sleeping Murder
M-7 25-Jan-1987 At Bertram's Hotel
M-8 08-Feb-1987 Nemesis
M-9 25-Dec-1987 4:50 from Paddington
M-10 25-Dec-1989 A Caribbean Mystery
M-11 29-Dec-1991 They Do It with Mirrors
M-12 27-Dec-1992 The Mirror Crack'd
Which seems like rather a short list to me. Anyone know if that's really all she did?
BlueDwarf
11-05-2004, 10:14
IMDB only list 12 shows as well.
I always thought it was much more too.
Thanks for the list. Shame it's so few and I've recently seen all of them except Body in the Library(which Is currently sitting on my Sky+) and The Moving Finger.
I'm also partial to the Margaret Rutherford version but these new remakes are just pointless
There are 3 box sets with the Miss Marple stories on them, I have them all. I mean the Jean Hickson ones that is.
cjanderson
11-05-2004, 19:40
well one tivo wishlist for joan hickson, and presently there are NO movies on with her in :-(
suer there must be something, granada plus ALWAYS has her on.
spearce8
11-05-2004, 21:16
Was watching "Murder She Said" recently (TCM) one of the 4 Marple Fims Margaret Rutherford did, and I noticed Joan Hickson playing a maid, canny or what :dork:
Originally posted by Grandmaster
Joan Hickson was the definitive Miss Marple - this new show is pointless.
Maybe, but I can't imagine Geraldine McEwan will be anything other than marvellous in the role.
ryonhilluk
11-05-2004, 22:14
Any chance of something original on TV these days?
Originally posted by ryonhilluk
Any chance of something original on TV these days?
Don't be silly :nono:
cjanderson
12-05-2004, 08:29
Why don;t they remake some other Miss Marple stories, AC wrote about 90 books, about 40 of them must be Miss marple.
Why keep doing the same old ones.
BettyBoop
12-05-2004, 11:50
Originally posted by PaulaB
There are 3 box sets with the Miss Marple stories on them, I have them all. I mean the Jean Hickson ones that is.
Where did you get them from, I would love to get these?
Originally posted by BettyBoop
Where did you get them from, I would love to get these?
dvdpacific have them quite cheeply compared to the uk versions.
As for another actor playing the part, I think the reason that the modern ones don't work is Joan Hickson was of the right generation, its not just the way she talks,she has the right attitude, she grew up in a small english village and probably knew people like miss Marple elderly spinsters who had enough money for a servant. Its also the look as well these days people stay younger looking for longer and a younger Miss Marple just wouldn't be the same.
:wave: Hi ho programs!
My favourite book is The Moving Finger. A Miss Marple story (just) but one that has never been filmed to the degree I would like. The storey starts months before Miss M. is involved and indeed she is almost a minor caracter.
The BBC version of it miss casts the Vickers wife dreadfully and ruins the London scenes totaly. But still worth a watch. :thumbs:
I still like it. :doh:
As for you who claim to dislike my referal to programs, just tell me this, How am I to know you are real without meeting you all? :searchme:
I know 1 of you Thornaster but if we are living in a matrix like reconstruction and not the real world then I only know programs not reality, and there is no posible way you could prove that or disprove that without going to another dimenion that may be also false. :suspect: (Catch 22).
:wave:
there are only 12 full length MIss Marple novels and a few short stories. Christie didn't find them as easy to write as the Poirot ones.
Quite enjoying this so far. It's got snappy dialogue and a decent pace to it. The continuity is all over the place though!
redmosquito
12-12-2004, 22:35
Is this going to be repeated anywere. I caught the last 2 minutes and saw lesbians kissing, now i'm bummed I missed it.
thescrounger
12-12-2004, 23:55
ITV 3 on the 18th. Even though I set my Tivo to record it last week it didn't and has no record of me having set it. Very odd.
redmosquito
13-12-2004, 00:35
ITV 3 on the 18th. Even though I set my Tivo to record it last week it didn't and has no record of me having set it. Very odd.
:thumbs:
Have to remember to record this for sure :D
:wave: Hi Ho Folks,
After seeing the new ITV show "Agatha Christie's Marple" I must say I was a disappointed. Though I admit I'm biased. :shrug:
I didn't think Geraldine McEwan made a very good Miss Marple I found her unconvincing and compaired to Joan Hickson (Christie's own choice) she is just not in Hickson's class. But at least she was better than Margret Rutherford and Angela Lansbury and about the same as when Helen Hayes played Miss Jane Marple. :oh-hum:
I did like the casting and Joanna Lumley was brilliant, But what realy got on my wick was the rewriting of the story. :razz:
I know ITV want a more racy version than those of th past but did they realy have to change who done it just to bring in a Homosexual storyline where there was none before. :razz:
:wave:
But I'll still watch the other shows as they mght get better, but i doubt it. :(
I think we are going to find that Joan Hickson is the definitive portrayal of the character. It's just a shame she wasn't doing hers now with digital production and the widescreen ratio! Watching the BBC versions from the 80s on that awful film stock they used is quite painful!
I agree about the changes to the story, not because it added a homo twist (personally I wanted yummy Adam Garcia to bed Jack Davenport! :n0rty: ) but simply because it's such a hoary old cliché to end on an 'all lesbians are murderers' statement, plus it doesn't ring true to the period or the characters. Mind you in the age of CSI and other forensic dramas these ropey old plots where everything is circumstantial at best (and nearly always without a jot of real evidence to back it all up) take a certain about of willingness to just 'go with it' in the first place!
Overall though it was very enjoyable and well scripted. Joanna Lumley was indeed superb (but it was hardly a stretch for her was it)!
It has been argued that the twist actually strengthens the plot and in some respects I agree with it. The solution of the book is meant to hinge upon a kind of wild, forbidden passion which Christie lacked the literary means to evoke and the lesbianism twist added, I thought, depth to the denouement.
Does anyone else find the Miss Marple films much more easy to watch than the Poirot ones? I dont think I've ever watched a full Poirot because I find him a bit boring and annoying.
Someone might be interested in this - 1st edition of "Ten Little N*ggers"
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20045&item=6939745673&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Does anyone else find the Miss Marple films much more easy to watch than the Poirot ones? I dont think I've ever watched a full Poirot because I find him a bit boring and annoying.
I do like the Poirot series and I do like most of the films starring Peter Usstinoff (wrong spelling I know) But I do like Miss Marple better But if ITV keep altering the plot just to get a Gay aspect to the stories continue then I think I'll just stick to watching the BBC series on the video collection I bought several years ago. :thumbs:
Why the Beeb has not released their version on DVD is beyond me. :shrug:
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