Miss Marple (TV series)

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Television series
German title Miss Marple (TV series)
Original title Miss Marple
Country of production UK , Australia , USA
original language English
Year (s) 1984-1992
length 53-104 minutes
Episodes 21 ( list )
genre Detective comedy
script Template: Agatha Christie
production Guy Slater
George Gallaccio
music Alan Blaikley
Ken Howard
camera John Walker
cut Bernard Ashby
First broadcast December 26, 1984 on BBC One
German-language
first broadcast		 August 20, 1986 on Südwest 3
occupation

Miss Marple is a 23-part BBC television series based on the Miss Marple crime novels by Agatha Christie . The main role is played by Joan Hickson . It was broadcast in England from 1984 to 1992. All twelve novels that Agatha Christie wrote with Miss Marple were filmed and dubbed for the German audience. The German version was broadcast from July 1986 first on DDR 1 and shortly afterwards on the West German Third . Because the films were up to 2.5 hours long, they were broadcast in individual parts.

Between 1986 and 1989 in the US, the films of 9 novels were released as 12 episodes of the television series Mystery! broadcast, which has been running in the USA since 1980 and in which the remakes from 2004 to 2013 ( Agatha Christie's Marple ) were integrated.

background

Christie wasn't particularly happy with most of the cinematic adaptations of her work, and neither is her grandson Matthew Prichard, who manages her inheritance after her death, "doesn't care much for television either." BBC producer Pat Sandys first spoke to Prichard and the Christie heirs with an in-depth and detailed plan for filming the novels Why Didn't They Ask Evans? ( Step into the void ) and The Seven Dials Mystery ( The Last Joker ) in the early 1980s. Although the projects received indifferent criticism, the films were popular with audiences and resulted in the filming of a number of short stories and the stories with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford in the series Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime ( Blunt Detective Agency ). With the success of this series, the BBC finally got the rights to film the novels with Miss Marple.

Joan Hickson , who plays Miss Marple, was eighty for most of the production. Many years earlier she had a small supporting role in Murder, She Said ( 4:50 p.m. from Paddington ), in which Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple. In contrast to the film adaptations with Margaret Rutherford, the adaptations are now very close to the novel. How much Joan Hickson the idea Agatha Christie of their corresponding Miss Marple, we learn from the fact that it in 1946, after Hickson in a stage version of with Appointment Death ( awaiting death ) had seen, wrote: "I hope one day you will play my beloved Miss Marple. "

There are three other quasi-serial roles in Miss Marple . The first is Detective Inspector Slack (later Detective Superintendent), played by David Horovitch, the second is Detective Inspector Craddock, played by John Castle and Detective Constable (later Detective Sergeant) Lake, played by Ian Brimble. Detective Inspector / Superintendent Slack and Detective Constable / Sergeant Lake play in five episodes: The Body in the Library , The Murder at the Vicarage , 4.50 From Paddington , They Do It with Mirrors and The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side . Detective Inspector Craddock stars in A Murder is Announced and The Mirror Crack'd . Gwen Watford plays Miss Marple's friend and neighbor, Dolly Bantry, in two episodes.

Episodes

episode Original title Broadcast (UK) Charisma (D) German title / novel Director and IMDb link
1 The Body in the Library-1 Dec 26, 1984 Aug 20, 1986 The dead one in the library Silvio Narizzano [1]
2 The Body in the Library-2 Dec. 27, 1984 Aug 27, 1986
3 The Body in the Library-3 Dec 28, 1984 03rd Sep 1986
content Miss Marple helps her neighbors, the Bantrys, in whose library a young girl was found dead.
4th The Moving Finger-1 Feb. 21, 1985 0Aug 5, 1986 The shadow hand Roy Boulting [2]
5 The Moving Finger-2 Feb 22, 1985 0Aug 6, 1986
content The residents of Lymstock receive anonymous letters. What at first looks like a vulgar joke quickly finds its first victim - suicide and another corpse is found ...
6th A Murder is Announced-1 Feb. 28, 1985 19 Sep 1986 A murder is announced David Giles [3]
7th A Murder is Announced-2 01st Mar 1985 Sep 20 1986
8th A Murder is Announced-3 02nd Mar 1985 21 Sep 1986
content A party game goes wrong and a young Swiss man is dead. Friends and neighbors suspect each other. Inspector Craddock is helpless. Fortunately, Miss Marple is in town to visit her niece ...
9 A Pocket Full of Rye-1 07th Mar 1985 July 22, 1986 The secret of the gold mine Guy Slater [4]
10 A Pocket Full of Rye-2 0March 8 1985 July 23, 1986
content When the members of a wealthy banking family die like flies, Miss Marple remembers an old nursery rhyme and finds the killer ...
11 The Murder at the Vicarage-1 Dec 25, 1986 Apr 20, 1988 Murder in the rectory Julian Amyes [5]
12 The Murder at the Vicarage-2 Dec. 26, 1986 Apr 21, 1988
content Death is only steps away from Miss Marple's house when Colonel Protheroe is murdered in idyllic St. Mary Mead.
13 Sleeping Murder-1 Jan. 11, 1987 Apr 26, 1988 Rest rudely John Davies [6]
14th Sleeping Murder-2 Jan. 18, 1987 Apr. 27, 1988
content A young woman believes her house is haunted. She feels like a witness to the murder of her stepmother 20 years ago. Miss Marple risks her life to help the young woman because there is a sleeping murderer.
15th At Bertram's Hotel-1 Jan 25, 1987 May 10, 1988 Bertrams Hotel Mary McMurray [7]
16 At Bertram's Hotel-2 0Feb. 1, 1987 May 12, 1988
content Miss Marple is recovering at Bertram's hotel. But nothing there is as it seems ...
17th Nemesis-1 0Feb. 8, 1987 Apr 13, 1988 Fate in person David Tucker [8]
18th Nemesis-2 Feb. 15, 1987 Apr. 14, 1988
content Miss Marple goes on a mission she received from the grave; she is supposed to find out the truth about the son of a deceased friend. She leads them to a dead girl, Verity Hunt, and scary sisters. She discovers that both love and hate have been used to murder.
19th 4.50 From Paddington-1 Dec 25, 1987 Oct 11, 1988 4:50 p.m. from Paddington Martyn Friend [9]
20th 4.50 From Paddington-2 Dec 25, 1987 Oct 18, 1988
content Miss Marple's friend sees a murder on a train that runs parallel to her own. Miss Marple, together with a resourceful young woman, manages to find the house where the corpse was brought. The family in this house seems innocent, but they have their secrets ...
21st A Caribbean Mystery Dec 25, 1989 Aug 29, 1990 Caribbean affair Christopher Petit [10]
content While on vacation in Barbados, Miss Marple gets bored with the stories of a quirky major who thinks he knows an undetected murderer. But when the major dies, the wild beauty of the island cannot hide the ruthlessness of the murderer.
22nd They Do It with Mirrors Dec 29, 1991 - Mirage Norman Stone [11]
content Miss Marple visits her old school friend Carrie Louise at a country estate. She runs a boarding school there with her husband. When Carrie Louise's beloved stepson is murdered, it's just the beginning and there are hundreds of suspects ...
23 The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side Dec 27, 1992 - Murder in the mirror Norman Stone [12]
content Hollywood comes to St. Mary Mead when aging diva Marina Gregg arrives to make a movie. But she barely escapes an attack, instead a local woman dies. Miss Marple separates the gossip from the facts and discovers the hidden tragedy.

production

The BBC producer Guy Slater cast Joan Hickson. Filming began in 1983 in Norfolk , Devon , Barbados and near Oxford, among others . The town of Nether Wallop, Hampshire served as the backdrop for St. Mary Mead. Slater was replaced by George Gallaccio at the beginning of the fourth film. Mainly for stylistic reasons, the plot was moved to the late 1940s, and some later episodes to the 1950s.

Hickson had after the 1989 film A Caribbean Mystery ( A Caribbean Mystery ) vowed to turn no further film, but was persuaded to return for the final films. A Caribbean Mystery was filmed at the Coral Reef Hotel in Barbados, where Christie had stayed while visiting the country. This hotel and its owners, Budge and Cynthia O'Hara, who owned the hotel for another 30 years later, were Christie's inspiration for her novel.

The atmospheric theme song was composed by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley.

The first 10 television films received their German version from the television of the GDR, Studio for Synchronization. The remaining last two films were only dubbed in 2016 by the dubbing company Bavaria Synchron in Munich, directed by Simon Mora , and have been available on DVD in German for the first time since October of the same year.

Reviews

The first episode was received enthusiastically by the critics. The Times wrote, "once it is turned on, you will not be able to turn it off again," and the Sun , this is an episode "of real power and great class." About the second episode, The Moving Finger ( The Moving Finger ), who said The Daily Telegraph : "Once again, Guy Slater production is based on the brilliant idea of Joan Hickson, blue behind their washed-out eyes and spinster sibilance, one the wheels detective intelligence can see turning. The film is perfectly cast, beautifully organized and lovingly photographed. ”The reviews of the following films were all equally positive.

Alan McKee, of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, described the series as "a fine example of the production of" heritage "popular in the 1980s. It combines a new Victorianism in moral standards and an adjusted version of England's past. Playing mostly in a rural setting, it is a monument to English architecture and country houses. Like many BBC productions it can be called impeccable and the costumes, houses, decorations, cars, hairstyles and makeup can be called precious ”.

McKee praises the series for being "as faithful as possible to the source material. Miss Marple doesn't hunt down the criminals like Margaret Rutherford once did in her films, nor have the titles of the books been changed to make them more sensational close."

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ transmission dates at Fernsehserien.de
  2. ^ The New Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie, Edited by Dick Riley and Pam McAllister. Ungar Publishing, New York 1979, rev 1986. "Christie on the BBC" Tennenbaum, Michael, p 339 ISBN 0804458030 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Agatha Christie: Murder in Four Acts, Haining, Peter, Virgin Books, London, 1990. ISBN 1852272732 .
  4. ^ A b Museum of Broadcast Communications .