However, Christie would never see Hickson in the role as the BBC series that starred her began in 1984, eight years after her death. It almost sounds too perfect that in the 1940s Agatha Christie wrote to Joan Hickson to suggest that she may play Miss Marple one day, but the story is true. Hayes’ mid-Atlantic accent and the placing of the action in the then-present day may momentarily confuse, but this Miss Marple still hails from England’s St Mary Mead, and is as keenly observant as ever. Hayes was regarded as the ‘first lady of American theatre’, and so it was something of a coup to have her star in adaptations of A Caribbean Mystery and They Do It with Mirrors (using its American title Murder with Mirrors). The high calibre of actresses given the role of Miss Marple continued with Helen Hayes, who appeared in two American television movies in the 1980s. A few years later Lansbury would star in murder mystery series Murder, She Wrote, in which she played Jessica Fletcher, a character not unlike Miss Marple in some ways. The idea had been to alternate Miss Marple and Poirot films, but the productions came to an end before this could happen. Appearing alongside Hollywood royalty Elizabeth Taylor, Lansbury brings real strength of character to the role, but also later said that she ‘just did my best to make her as close to what I felt was a true depiction’. The 1980 film of The Mirror Crack’d had spent several years in development, and Angela Lansbury had been earmarked for the part of Miss Marple long before production started. But as the later films deviated from her novels, so her uneasiness grew, and she later wrote that ‘Margaret Rutherford was a very fine actress, but was never in the least like Miss Marple’.Īngela Lansbury as Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd, Credit Studio Canal Christie respected Rutherford, and even dedicated The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side to her. Rutherford’s performance was popular with audiences and many critics, but not Christie herself. Her comic skills were well used, as was her strong character – this Miss Marple was a real force of nature. Rutherford was placed front and centre of the action, absorbing the roles of some other characters in the book to make her the undoubted star. She starred in four films beginning with Murder She Said in 1961, which adapted 4.50 from Paddington. Fields didn’t appear to be comfortable in the role, and it wasn’t well received.įew depictions of Miss Marple inspire such nostalgia as Margaret Rutherford’s take on the role. The versatile British star was joined by a young Roger Moore and top-billed Jessica Tandy for a one-hour production of A Murder is Announced in 1956. However, they were unsuccessful in this endeavour, and instead the first screen appearance of the character saw her portrayed by Gracie Fields. Producers had tried to convince Christie to allow Miss Marple to become an American living in Cape Cod, possibly played by Peggy Wood. Throughout the 1950s American television companies were keen to bring Christie’s stories to the small screen, but Miss Marple often eluded their grasp. This performance caught the eye of the BBC, who considered casting her in a Miss Marple television series, but it never got off the ground. In the 1970s she reprised the role in a revival of the play, and by this point was a more suitable age. Already well-respected in the theatre (and later to become well-known as housekeeper Janet in Dr Finlay’s Casebook), she received warm reviews despite the fact that she was decades younger than the character. Perhaps surprisingly, it was 35-year-old Barbara Mullen who won the part of elderly spinster. Miss Marple made her stage debut in 1949, in a version of The Murder at the Vicarage adapted by Moie Charles and Barbara Toy. Unfortunately, no recording is known to survive. Written in the first person, Christie’s reading of the story in May 1934 therefore saw her performing as Miss Marple. Christie duly agreed to provide a replacement, and wrote ‘Miss Marple Tells a Story’. She penned the supernaturally tinged ‘In a Glass Darkly’ for the occasion, but the BBC preferred a more traditional style of mystery. In 1934 the BBC asked Christie to write a story for the radio which she would then read out. The first person to play Miss Marple was none other than the character’s own creator, Agatha Christie. Here are just some of the most famous and notable portrayals of Miss Marple. Agatha Christie’s female sleuth has captured crime fiction fans' hearts since her arrival on the page in 1927.
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