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

June 27, 2010

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!

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13 Comments - Click Here to Read the Comments or to Add Another

Comments

  1. Laura says

    June 27, 2010 at 9:29 am

    Danna: Thanks for the reminder! I will be watching tonight. I, too, was wondering what happened to Geraldine McEwan. Thanks for the info. Have you seen “Mulberry” with McEwan? Another great series that is hard to explain (not a mystery). It has to do with the son of Death and Springtime trying to learn his father’s business. He ends up teaching an old lady how to find the joy of life.

    Reply
  2. Anne says

    June 27, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Geraldine McEwan is wonderful in everything I have seen her in but she was born to play Miss Marple in my opinion. I miss her terribly. Her part in Mulberry is about as far from Lucia as Miss Marple is but she was delightful in that as well. Written by the same man who wrote As Time Goes By.

    I’m looking forward to Miss Marple tonight. Thanks for the information Danna.

    Reply
  3. Danna - cozy mystery list says

    June 27, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    Anne,

    Sounds like you are a fan of McEwan, also! No matter what she is in, she makes it her own!

    McEwan is an actress I seek out…

    Reply
  4. Alicia says

    June 27, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    I’m entranced by the village in the Blue Geranium– do you know where it is? The location, I mean?

    Reply
  5. Pam says

    June 27, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    Where was the Blue Geranium filmed? I would really like to know as the architecture is familiar but I want to see if my guess is right!
    thank you.

    Reply
  6. Danna - cozy mystery list says

    June 28, 2010 at 9:03 am

    Hi Pam,

    I looked, and looked… but have not found anything.
    Perhaps you are right…. Where do you think it was filmed?

    Hi Alicia,

    Let’s hope that Pam is thinking about the right place! I would also love to know…

    Reply
  7. Clarissa at MMT says

    June 29, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    I liked Blue Geranium very much. Thanks for reminding me where I’d seen Sharon Small before. It was driving me crazy. And I always like seeing Claudie Blakley. I loved her in Cranford.

    Reply
  8. Danna - cozy mystery list says

    June 29, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    Clarissa,
    I just added a “PS” on the entry about Caroline Catz being in this episode, also. I love her work in Doc Martin!

    Reply
  9. Sue says

    June 29, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    My husband is fairly certain the village is Hambledon in Buckinghamshire. We’ve had a family wedding in that church, and the tree in the circle in the road can be seen in a satellite view of Hambledon. Looks like the telephone booth may have been added, though. Perhaps?

    Reply
  10. Danna - cozy mystery list says

    July 1, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    Thank you so much, Sue, for telling us about Hambledon.

    How lucky to be able to visit places this beautiful in “real life.” I have to rely on Cozy Mystery authors to bring me your picturesque villages.

    (I am going to have to have my husband help me take a look at the satellite view.)

    Reply
  11. Margie says

    July 4, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    Hi,
    Sharon Small is actually a brilliant scottish actress. She was in a beautiful little film called “Dear Franky” with Gerard Butler (phantom of the opera). I’ve loved all her work but what a departure in Blue Geraniums. She was amazing. We’re huge fans of Caroline Catz (Doc Martin), and hope in the coming series the writers will figure out a way that we can hear Louisa sing. I’m one of a huge following in Canada.

    Reply
  12. Shirley says

    July 6, 2010 at 10:52 pm

    Oh Darn, I missed the Blue Geranium……didn’t know the night or time………….I guess I missed that information, too.

    I now know its on Tuesday nights…..what time, please?
    Our paper has no television times and nights and we don’t get the TV Guide……………..boo hoo……..grin..grin.
    I love your website……………YOU DO wonders for it …hugs.

    Reply
  13. Danna - cozy mystery list says

    July 7, 2010 at 10:51 am

    Actually, Shirley, I think it would be safest to watch the Masterpiece Mystery! shows on Sunday night… either at 8:00 PM or 9:00 PM is my guess. (Ours start at 8:00 but we’re on Central time… I’m not sure if that makes a difference, though…)

    Reply

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