"I hate an unsolved case." - Geraldine McEwan as amateur sleuth Miss Marple
Agatha Christie's Marple: Series 2 DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
Miss Jane Marple (Geraldine McEwan) looks like your average granny circa 1952. She wears sensible shoes, never leaves home without her hat, loves to knit, and often reads in bed. Yes, she seems like your average granny. Until, of course, you notice that the book she's intently reading is The Smiling Corpse. Agatha Christie's famous amateur sleuth is back on the case with four more films co-produced by British TV and PBS' Mystery based on Christie's novels.
"Sleeping Murder"
Twenty-one year-old Gwenda Halliday (Sophia Miles) was born and raised in India. Her mother died when she was only three, and her British diplomat father died a year later, leaving her in the care of an aunt. When she arrives in England for the first time to prepare for her wedding to a business magnate and to search for the perfect coastal estate for them to settle in, her world gets turned upside down. If she has never been to England, why does the house she's chosen seem so familiar? And why does she begin having visions of a woman named Helen being murdered there? With the help of Hugh Hombeam (Aiden McArdle) and Miss Marple, she soon discovers a tangled web of secrets from her family's past.
"Sleeping Murder" sets series two off to a rousing start. There is a wealth of suspects, including an entire coterie of music hall performers, but for much of the episode, we don't even know if there was a murder. Viewers may come to realize that we care more about the ultimate fate of the characters than simply whodunit. Ultimately, "Sleeping Murder" is a mystery of the heart rather than the brain.
"By the Pricking of My Thumbs"
Sunny Ridge Retirement Home for Ladies seems like a peaceful place for Aunt Ada (Claire Bloom, The Camomile Lawn), beloved aunt of Tommy Berresford (Anthony Andrews, Brideshead Revisited), to spend the rest of her days. When the rest of her days prove much shorter than anticipated, Tommy's wife Tuppence (Greta Scacchi, Flightplan) suspects foul play. Could Aunt Ada's death have anything to do with the mysterious disappearance of her best friend at Sunny Ridge, Mrs. Lancaster (June Whitfield, Last of the Summer Wine)? With Tommy away on business, Tuppence decides to do a little detective work. Miss Marple, whose former neighbor now lives at Sunny Ridge, tags along to help with the case. Following clues in a painting willed to Tommy by Aunt Ada, the duo follow the trail to Farrell St. Edmund, a village in which everyone seems to know more than they're willing to admit.
Christie's Tommy and Tuppence have been portrayed onscreen before, including in their own series. "By the Pricking of My Thumbs" finds them at a different stage in their lives. As Tommy trots around the world as an investigator for the British government, Tuppence sits at home nursing a glass or two (or three or four) of whiskey. She gave up her own crime fighting life long ago to devote her time to raising their children, but now the kids are grown, and Tuppence feels useless. She even lacks the confidence to drive the sporty car that Tommy gave her. With a little help from Miss Marple, though, she regains her sense of purpose and cracks the case.
This is another strong entry in the series. The pairing of McEwan and Scacchi works extremely well. Plus mystery stories that involve seemingly malevolent townsfolk who band together to fight outsiders never fail to evoke a chill or two.
"The Moving Finger"
Jerry Burton (James d'Arcy) is a war vet who is disillusioned by the boozy mess that his post-war life has become. After a failed suicide attempt, his doctor orders him to seek out simple country life to aid in his recovery. He and his sister rent a home in quaint Lymstock. As it turns out, life in Lymstock is not so simple. Everyone in town loves to gossip, but now someone is taking it too far, sending out dozens of poison-pen letters. One of the letters even led to the apparent suicide of Lymstock's most respected citizen, a retired WWI officer. Miss Marple is in town to attend the funeral, and when another person commits suicide after receiving a letter, she and Jerry investigate whether something more sinister is going on.
This episode again does what Agatha Christie's Marple is best at: it explores the effects of WWII on the men and women of Britain under the guise of a murder mystery. Miss Marple barely even budges from the comfy chairs and couches in which she compulsively knits, but her keen eye again solves the crime.
"The Sittaford Mystery"
Winston Churchill is set to retire as Prime Minister, and rumor has it that he has hand-picked Clive Trevelyan (Timothy Dalton, The Living Daylights) as his successor. When Trevelyan is trapped in a country inn by a snowstorm, a seemingly harmless séance using a Ouija board reveals that Trevelyan will die that very night. At Sittaford House a few miles away, Miss Marple discovers more earthly evidence of a plot to kill Trevelyan. Can Trevelyan's political advisor and an ambitious young reporter make it to the inn on time to save him, or are they already too late?
"The Sittaford Mystery" is another fine example of taking a familiar mystery trope - this time a diverse group of people trapped in a house - and making it seem fresh again. Miss Marple's solution to the mystery is somewhat of a stretch, but the episode is so entertaining that this is easy to overlook.
Agatha Christie's Marple: Series 2 is truly a joy to watch. Each episode is a perfect blend of gentle humor, thrills, and psychological insight into the minds of war-scarred Britons in the 1950s. The series is also impeccably produced, rivaling even big screen period pieces.
Agatha Christie's Marple: Series 2 consists of four discs, each holding one of the series' episodes. Each disc is housed in a slim keepcase. The four keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve. The cover of the first series' cardboard sleeve was decorated with an oddly stylized picture of McEwan which made the star look like some sort of alien. This time around, the sunny-yet-mysterious cover art is more in keeping with the style and tone of the series.
