The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Miss Marple Movies and Television Series…

Ordinarily, you probably don’t think of Miss Marple as funny. That will change if you are able to see Margaret Rutherford’s portrayal of Miss Marple. You will most likely by tempted to think of her as “Jane” instead of “Miss Marple.”

At first, I was quite put off by Ms. Rutherford’s portrayal of Miss Marple. Once I got over my initial shock (for truly that is what it was!) I was delighted by these early 1960s movie productions.  The Agatha Christie Miss Marple Collection includes Rutherford in the classics Murder, She Said, Murder at the Gallop, Murder Most Foul, and Murder Ahoy. Margaret Rutherford was truly busy playing this feisty rendition of Jane. And, as an added bonus, we are able to see Joan Hickson appear as the housekeeper in Murder, She Said!

Some of you may ask…. Who is Joan Hickson, and why would seeing her be a treat? For some, those who were teenagers or older in the 1980s, Joan Hickson will always be Miss Marple. She has a quiet resolve about her… She is very proper, never excited, always observant. Fortunately for those of us who remember Ms. Hickson playing Miss Marple, there are now DVDs available for us to capture the true essence of Miss Marple. (I miss the days when A & E played these classic BBC shows, don’t you?)

Joan Hickson portrays Miss Marple in such a manner that makes it totally believable when she is able to casually stay in the background while gleaning even more information than the police detectives. I read somewhere that Agatha Christie had actually said that Joan Hickson was the actress who best could play Miss Marple as she had written her.

There are several sets out on the market (as well as being available through rental places) that brought back memories of a time when you had to be seated in front of your television at the precise time the show was scheduled to begin if you wanted to watch a Miss Marple movie/episode. Shows like The Body in the Library,  A Murder is Announced, and A Pocket Full of Rye (Gift Set)…The Mirror Crack’d, 4:50 from Paddington, Sleeping Murder, and A Caribbean Mystery (Collection 1)… Nemesis, They Do It with Mirrors, The Murder at the Vicarage, The Moving Finger, and At Bertram’s Hotel (Collection 2) And, such luminary actors as Donald Pleasence, Claire Bloom, Jean Simmons. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the BBC produced these shows… You know that you can rely on the costumes and sets to be right on the mark!

I think that Joan Hickson’s portrayal of Miss Marple is probably the one which most captures Agatha Christie’s character, including the hair pins in her bun and the knitting needles in her over-sized (almost a carpet!) bag. If you love cozy mystery movies, then I strongly recommend checking out these Joan Hickson renditions of our beloved Miss Marple.

Here is the actual way that the Joan Hickson/Miss Marple shows aired:
  1   The Body in the Library
  2   The Moving Finger  
  3   A Murder is Announced
  4   A Pocketful of Rye 
  5   The Murder at the Vicarage 
  6   Sleeping Murder
  7   At Bertram’s Hotel 
  8   Nemesis 
  9   4:50 from Paddington  
10   A Caribbean Mystery   
11   They Do It With Mirrors  
12   The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

To Serve Them All My Days… BBC Miniseries

The To Serve Them All My Days miniseries is based on the novel (of the same name) by R. F. Delderfield. I admit to not having read the novel, but I have seen the miniseries… and I love it! It is not a mystery, but it does stand up to its BBC counterparts in that it is an extremely good production. The thirteen segment series was produced in 1980 and is set during the time between World War I and WW II.

The miniseries follows “David,” a soldier who survived WW I physically (albeit with a limp) but who was left with a somewhat shaky mental outlook… commonly known as shell-shock. Although not a teacher by trade, he is given a job as a teacher at an exclusive, upper-crust boys boarding school. (A “public” school… which to us in the USA translates to “private.”) David, the teacher, is beautifully played by John Duttine— who— if you are a lover of BBC/ITV productions, you will surely recognize.

David does not come from the privileged background that his students come from, and is not entirely sure he wants to teach at this posh school. But, with time, you see how David is able to identify with these boys who are expected to be “brave, little men:” while being taken from their families and placed into boarding schools at very young ages… 

The cast is superb, the wardrobe is authentic-looking, and the setting is wonderful. I think that the only negative thing I have to say is that the series is simply too short. I would have loved watching more segments>>> actually, many more segments!

I missed seeing this series when it was broadcast on Masterpiece Theatre in the early 1980s so I was delighted to find it recently. I strongly recommend this wonderful production… even though it isn’t a mystery!

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

Christmas Theme BBC Types of Mysteries…

Walter Wrote:
I love BBC mysteries and I am trying to find shows with a Christmas Theme. I already watched Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and loved it. I am looking for more, any BBC mystery with a Christmas theme would be welcome this season. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you Walter

I Responded:
Let me think about this a little longer, Walter. Right off the top of my head…. Sherlock Holmes had the Blue Carbuncle…
Also, I have a vague recollection of one of the Frost shows as being Christmas-themed…. I just can’t remember which one. I know that the first novel in the series takes place during Christmas (R. D. Wingfield‘s wonderful Frost at Christmas… I think that it might by Line of Fire, which is a two part episode.)

I sort of remember Gladys Mitchell‘s Mrs. Bradley show as having a Christmas special, but I can’t remember which one (or even if I am right about that.)

I will keep thinking about it… and will probably write a blog asking for other people to help.

Do any of you have possible suggestions?

Cagney & Lacey … ONLY one of the best television shows!

I was just trying to think of some shows that I really enjoyed watching. Some of the shows stand out more than others. I remember that a cable channel (in the U.S.) showed one of my all-time favorite police shows a few years ago. The channel aired the shows every weekday, at the same time, and I had my VCR programmed to get every last one of those shows… Now I’m sorry that I didn’t keep the VHS tapes. (Of course, I would have had to keep our VCR hooked up!)

“Cagney & Lacey” is one of the shows that I remember most fondly. I absolutely loved the comradeship of the two women… and I also loved how different they were. Sharon Gless (Christine Cagney) and Tyne Daly (Mary Beth Lacey) could not have been better cast as these two diverse women. (Sharon Gless replaced Meg Foster… and even Loretta Switt in the role!) Cagney was the wise-cracking, brutally frank police officer…. single, with a private life that could not have been messier. Lacey, on the other hand, was the police woman who had to use tact to gloss over Cagney’s (almost) bull-headed ways…. She was married, with a very loving husband and children.

By the time the show aired I had already graduated from college, and had held jobs in the work force… But, my jobs didn’t have anything in common with the jobs that these two police officers had… They were tough women who always caught their man (or woman… whoever the culprit happened to be!) And, back in the early 1980s, I don’t remember a whole lot of shows where the two lead characters were women…. and tough and smart at that!

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