Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage

source: Miss Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage

The underlying problem with this version of Murder at the Vicarage is that the producers took it out of order. Murder at the Vicarage was Agatha's Christie's first adventure with Miss Marple. This edition was evidently produced later in the series. Here, Miss Marple is used to being involved, and police are used to consulting her, however much they resent having to do so. The script is rather heavy-handed, moving quickly from one incident to another with little or no set-up. And while the original novel does this as well, it doesn't spring things on us totally out of the blue. Joan Hickson is most probably the Miss Marple that Agatha Christie envisioned - more so than Margaret Rutherford or Helen Hayes, for example, but the rest of the production is not. True, a 200+ page novel had to be condensed into one hour and 42 minutes. This is never easy, but it has often been done successfully. Not here. The writers needed to capture the leisurely and still foreboding small village atmosphere early on. They didn't, and it makes the necessarily hurried plot revelations seem even more so. This results in far too many smug reaction shots, far too many exchanges of dialogue dripping with "significance", far too many scenes which could have been cut to a few lines of dialogue, freeing up the pace for more insightful exchanges elsewhere. (For example, the secondary priest subplot is reduced to an obligatory afterthought here. It was more prominent in the novel, but its lack of necessity here is obvious. The bit with the vicar's car is also totally unneeded; he rides his bicycle the rest of the time, anyway.) Overall, Miss Marple is reduced to an almost supporting player, which of course she is in many of the Christie novels, but one whose presence is always felt whether she is on scene or not. That isn't true here, at least until the end, and it should be.

Joan Hickson was the embodiment of Miss Marple. Many actresses have played Miss Marple but none of them have surpassed Joan Hickson's portrayal. This is the first story of Miss marples debut not counting the short story that was previously published. I think if Agatha Christie was alive when this was out she would have been pleased. Excellent who done it. I miss those days.

Like Cabot Cove in Maine, USA, St.Mary Mead in Great Britain seems to be the murder capital of that country. You would think so with Miss Marple solving all those murders in and around there. The murder victim in this case is a very nasty sort of man who has the title colonel from his army days. Robert Lang is a nasty version of that satirical figure from the United Kingdom between the wars Colonel Blimp. his guy expects his family to address him as Colonel and they do. He's pretty disliked by one and all. Reverend Paul Eddington finds Lang slumped over his (Eddington's) desk at the vicarage. There's a long list of suspects. What the two who planned it also planned to use Jane Marple as an alibi witness as they know she's outside tending her garden at the time planned. Both make sure Joan Hickson sees them. It's what throws off both Scotland Yard as Miss Marple. Hickson comes pretty close to what I think Agatha Christie wanted in Jane Marple. Hickson was 80 when she did this Marple series for the BB, this particular episode. The villains think her advanced age makes dotty. But she fools them.

Colonel Protheroe is a resident of St. Mary Mead and a loathsome man. A magistrate, forceful, opinionated and tyrannical. It comes as no surprise when he's shot dead, plenty of suspects including his adulterous wife, her lover, his ex wife, and a local petty criminal. Hailing from the same village it comes as no surprise that local sleuth Jane Marple is first on the scene, much to the annoyance of Detective Inspector Slack. The first Miss Marple story that Christie wrote, and a classic plot, one that could have been delivered in a too heavy handed way, with the killer seeming obvious, but the production team managed to divert attention and keep the viewer guessing. Plaudits to the casting director, who did an exceptional job, primarily with the pairing of Paul Eddington and Cheryl Campbell, they are exquisite as the Vicar and his wife, Campbell manages to be sympathetic, funny and utterly charming, I would say she's the standout. The St. Mary Mead gossip team are wonderful, so believable, Rosalie Crutchley and Barbara Hicks are delightful, with the latter returning six years later for the final episode. I love the dynamic between Miss Marple and slack, the annoyance would last years. The music is excellent throughout, helping to add mystery to the story without being too much. As always a huge focus on attention to detail, the fashion, cars etc all on point. A cracking mystery 9/10

I don't believe there are any spoilers. I enjoyed this one. It was easy to have compassion for the varying characters and their situations. Miss Marple was as observant and as keyed in to the actual situation as ever. I've seen this one often and will again.

When Mrs. LaStrange first attends services, the vicar asks if she is just there "for the season", to which she said, "Well, to everything there is a season". The vicar replies, "Oh yes, "Proverbs'". No, that quote is from the Book of Ecclesiastes. One would think vicar would know that. BTW, this exchange does not appear in the novel. Also, Mr. Dawes, the curate, is described to be a Jesuit. Why would what appears to be a Presbyterian church employ a Catholic priest? The curate is in the novel, but is never referred to as a Jesuit.

I really enjoyed this adaptation of "The Murder at the Vicarage". It is not as good as the delightful "A Murder is Announced" but it is very enjoyable, and not only one of the better Joan Hickson adaptations, but a considerable improvement over the Geraldine McEwan version(though that was one of the better adaptations of that series I feel). The pace is solid, the pace was a problem I had with "They Do it With Mirrors" which is my least favourite of the series, and the story is well structured. There is a nice witty script and lovely production values. The acting is very good in general, the only weaknesses for me being that James Hazeldine underplaying his role of Lawrence Redding and Polly Adams a little too stiff as Anne. Joan Hickson really makes this work though, with a simple charm and wisdom she is for me the best Miss Marple, and out of the supporting cast I loved Cheryl Campbell as Griselda, a delightful performance from a great actress. I liked the music too, really pleasant to listen to. Overall, I really enjoyed this adaptation. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Lifeless. Boring. Dull. Awkward. Disjointed. Bad directing, acting, casting, editing, music. Colorless, ugly buildings and backdrops. The actors have even less life in them. Not to mention Joan Hickson's lisp. They can't finish a scene in this episode without jumping to 4 or 5 others first. David Horovitz's interpretation of Inspector Slack is one dimensional- he's just abominably rude to everyone with no zeal or enthusiasm for his work. Utter tripe. Try Geraldine McEwan's version; at least it won't put you to sleep.

Spoilers herein. Watching all these BBC Marples is a real treat visually because you get a different director each time, and usually a different writer. That way, there is as much discovery in how the translation is made as there is in the mystery itself. But T R Bowen adapted seven of these and they are the worst of the bunch. That's because he truly believes in the TeeVee model: the viewer doesn't want to think about what is going on. There is no game between writer and reader. The TeeVee viewer just wants to pleasantly take up time and be surprised by the clever solution. Christie never intended such a thing, and railed against it in her lifetime. Her own plays show that intelligent engagement with the audience is possible, This Bowenization is a case in point. The novel idea here is that the detective herself provides the mistaken alibi. A pretty clever idea in 1930, already copied many times by the time this production is set. The book has it as a matter of self-confrontation; that's why we have the mad curator, and the introspection of the dying woman, and the painter. All that is washed away in this TeeVee script. Shame on Bowen and curses to viewers who don't complain. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.