The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Hercule Poirot : Third Girl – Agatha Christie – PBS NEW Masterpiece Mystery!

Here’s another friendly reminder >>> Don’t forget Hercule Poirot (aka David Suchet) is again going to grace us with his phenomenal little gray cells… tonight, July 18, 2010. Yes, it’s that time again… Someone has done a very terrible “something”… and our favorite Belgian detective is going to tell us who, what, when, and why!

This adaptation of Third Girl  (based on the 1966 Agatha Christie mystery) will star David Suchet… but here’s an extra treat: both the wonderful actress Zoë Wanamaker and the always-great David Yelland will be in tonight’s episode. I won’t list all of their credits, but am guessing you will recognize their very familiar faces… a real treat!

So, I urge you to set up whatever type of recording device you “depend on” for tonight’s showing of Agatha Christie’s Third Girl (check your local PBS schedule for the exact time)… unless you plan on being in front of your television set at the appointed hour!

Hercule Poirot : Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie – PBS NEW Masterpiece Mystery!

Do NOT forget that the latest version of Murder on the Orient Express will be airing tonight, July 11, 2010. Yes, it’s true! The (British) actor David Suchet will deliver yet another perfect portrayal of the Belgian private investigator. (What Jeremy Brett is to Sherlock Holmes, David Suchet is to Hercule Poirot!)

I recently re-watched the 1974 movie version of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (directed by Sidney Lumet) just so that I could compare that particular version to tonight’s Masterpiece Mystery! 90-minute version. (Having already read the Agatha Christie mystery, and seen both the 1974 version of the movie, and a 1930/1940 movie, I knew I wouldn’t be spoiling the actual plot.)

The 1974 movie stars Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and has a dream cast of actors from the 1970s. (Watching the 1974 Albert Finney Murder on the Orient Express reminded me of watching Murder, She Wrote… and having all of the “A-list” guest stars in one 2-hour movie…)

If you have a yearning for seeing: Albert Finney and (by alphabetical order) Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark,and Michael York… all in the confines of a very luxurious, absolutely splendorous train setting, with gorgeous chandeliers that shimmer and shine, mother-of-pearl inlays in the (¿mahogany?) wood paneling of the walls, private sleeping cars that are without doubt unequal today, shared sleeping berths that would make you wish you could travel in the second-class section >>>Well then, this 1974 Murder on the Orient Express is for you!

BUT >>> If you have a desire for watching Hercule Poirot as only David Suchet can portray him, then make sure you are either sitting in front of your television tonight (on your local PBS station) OR you don’t forget to set your mode of recording!

I only wish that Hugh Frasier (Capt. Hastings) and Pauline Moran (Miss Lemon) could have come aboard!

Miss Marple: The Blue Geranium – Agatha Christie – PBS NEW Masterpiece Mystery!

OK, everyone! This is it! This is the last new Miss Marple Masterpiece Mystery! episode that PBS will be airing during their summer Mystery! bonanza, and it’s on tonight!

The Blue Geranium is indeed a Miss Marple mystery… which is great to know! Actually, The Blue Geranium is an Agatha Christie short story … which is still great to know! (If you read my previous entry about The Secret of Chimneys, and the fact that it was an Superintendent Battles mystery novel, then you know what I mean!) I think it’s always clever when they air mystery episodes which feature true depictions of the works by the highlighted authors, and not changes the producers think the public should see!

Anyway… The very talented Julia McKenzie (again) appears as Miss Marple. And, as an added bonus for all of the Masterpiece Mystery! fans amongst us>>> Sharon Small (Barbara Havers in Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley Mystery televized mysteries) is going to be one of the featured actors (or should that be actresses?!!?)

After looking around on  the PBS site, I came away with two very interesting (to me, anyway!) tidbits… Julia McKenzie says that she “had hardly read any” Agatha Christie novels, and that when she first took on the roll of Miss Marple, the scripts had been written for Geraldine McEwan (the previous Miss Marple). I had wondered if the production company was the same for both McEwan and McKenzie, and apparently it is!

But, this posed a mystery to me: Why did McKenzie replace McEwan? I found out, through Google-ing different phrases, that McEwan retired after the third season of her Miss Marple sojourn. I have been a tremendous fan of McEwan since I saw her on Masterpiece Theatre’s Mapp and Lucia miniseries, in the mid 1980s. Actually, had it not been for her absolutely phenomenal portrayal of Lucia, I wonder if I would have ever discovered E. F. Benson… my favorite of all my many authors…

PS>>> What a delight it was to see Caroline Catz (from Doc Martin) as Hazel Instow!

Miss Marple: The Secret of Chimneys – Agatha Christie – PBS NEW Masterpiece Mystery!

As the title of this Cozy Mystery site entry says: Miss Marple Series V is back – with a NEW 90 minute episode: The Secret of Chimneys. And, if you are ANYTHING like me, you are probably ready for your “dose” of Agatha Christie via the good folks of British television and PBS. (Thank goodness PBS still airs our favorite British mysteries… now that other channels like A & E no longer do so!)

Anyway… tomorrow, Sunday, June 20, PBS will be airing the NEW  Miss Marple Masterpiece Mystery! : The Secret of Chimneys.

Now for the bad news >>> The Secret of Chimneys is one of Agatha Christie‘s earliest mystery books. That, in itself, is not the bad news. But, the fact that it was written in 1925, five years before the first Miss Marple mystery book (Murder at the Vicarage) is.

The Secret of Chimneys is the first mystery in Agatha Christie’s lesser-known Superintendent Battles Mystery Series, which is made up of five mysteries. Superintendent Battles is a Scotland Yard man, definitely not an older, knitting-needles-wielding spinster! Because of this, I cannot be sure what part Miss Marple (played by the talented actress Julia McKenzie) will actually play in the episode. It’s anyone’s guess as to how much actual screen time Miss Marple will have, and also, how much of the screen time will be taken by Superintendent Battles.

Hmmm… It does seem a shame that with so many Agatha Christie Miss Marple mysteries available, recently several NON Miss Marple books have been made into Miss Marple movies. Oh well… I am just going to look at this from the glass-half-full perspective and simply ENJOY this show, regardless of what liberties the producers have made!

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