I read the book some years ago and enjoyed it, even though it was a little scary. This fiasco is nothing like the story told by Ms Christie and makes a mockery of a decent book. Geraldine McKewen is awful as Marple ( but then wait until you see Julia McKenzie she's even worse). In this 3rd rate adaptation we have a band of actors who have no reason to be there. It seems the makers had budget problems and spent it on poor script writers and even poorer actors (Dawn French!) It should state that it is LOOSELY BASED on the novel. It's a gripping tale of a woman from New Zealand who comes to England with her husband.She was told she was born and raised Iin NZ, but on house hunting she is drawn to a particular house and buys it. As she decorates and makes changes to the house, lots of coincidences occur and memories of being in the house before..........Please buy the Hickson version. It's filmed in Sidmouth, Devon.

I was absolutely gutted when the BBC regained the rights of Agatha Christie from ITV, there were still a few stories that could have been done to feature Miss M, The Seven dials mystery being one.It's a very difficult series to rate, because the productions ranged from awful to wonderful. Why didn't they ask Evans and The Sittaford Mystery being the low points, with brilliance coming from the likes of The Blue Geranium, A Murder is announced and The Moving Finger.Adaptations ranged from fairly accurate, A Pocket full of Rye and A Murder is announced, to wildly re written, Nemesis perhaps being the most altered.They weren't afraid to add Jane Marple to Christie books where she hadn't appeared, in some cases it worked brilliantly, The Pale Horse and Greenshaw's Folly being about the best.Initially we had Geraldine, unrecognisable for some as the character, but cheeky with a sparkle, and a sense of justice. McEwan was unable to return for series 4, so Julia McKenzie was cast to take over. More as Christie had written in her books in my opinion, and when the writing was good for her I thought she shone, in the Blue Geranium I think she was incredible.They seemed to take a few risks when it came to casting, we had Elaine Page, Griff Rhys Jones, Harry Enfield, Lisa Stansfield, all actually worked brilliantly, cast against type. The performance highlights came from Zoe Wannamaker, Sharon Small, Shirley Henderson and quite a few others. The only time I felt the acting was in question was during 'Evans,' for that one I blame the script and poor direction.Glorious scenery throughout, I loved the house that was used as Miss Marple's residence, such a pretty place. The period detail was spot on so many times, in terms of outfits and styling they nailed it, Bertram's wasn't my favourite adaptation but it's a beautiful looking episode, the clothes were beautiful.The music was a little overdone at times, more so in Series 1, but a lot of the time it was enjoyable and melodic, The Body in the Library and Murder is Easy being better examples.You need to watch these adaptations with an open mind, purists of Christie's work are likely to watch with unease. The acting throughout the series was excellent, it was the writers and producers that made the episodes great or poor.People will always compare these adaptations to the BBC's, I did myself, but try to enjoy them without the comparisons, there'd have been no point making them identically, so plaudits for trying something different, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

As a big Agatha Christie fan, whenever a new Marple is on regardless of any initial dubiousness I never miss it. The ITV Marple series does have some good entertainment value and is not as bad as it has often been dismissed as, it is well made, has good acting on the whole and is fun. But it is also very difficult to rate, because the adaptations are a very mixed bag quality-wise. And this has little to do with infidelity to the books(which is the biggest and most common criticism of the series), even as a fan of Christie I have always been a firm believer of judging adaptations on their own terms as long as it doesn't feel dull and makes sense.Admittedly some of the adaptations do not fare well with some of the changes made, the worst case being the ending of Body in the Library, still absurd even when you haven't read of the book, this viewer has, my parents hadn't and were pretty dumbfounded to the final solution of that one. Sleeping Murder also would have benefited much better if the incredibly haunting ending of the book was maintained rather than the Poirot-like denouncement that the adaptation had, the excellent Joan Hickson adaptation had it and it was done brilliantly, why wasn't it here(trying to solve the problem of having too many characters is my bet)? And then there's At Bertram's Hotel that if you took the period detail, Miss Marple and that it was a mystery drama you could have sworn it wasn't Agatha Christie.But some of the adaptations that really disappointed did so on their own terms. Sittaford Mystery did have good production values and acting but it was very difficult to get into when the mystery didn't really ever come to life with a first half that took forever to get going. Why Didn't They Ask Evans?(Secret of Chimneys to a lesser extent too) had a different problem in that it was incredibly convoluted(even when watching it again since reviewing the adaptation the ending made little sense at all). At Bertram's Hotel manages to be both, as well as being far too broad, with perhaps Nemesis also faring the same. The adaptations that added Miss Marple into the story also had a mixed effect, Towards Zero incorporated her quite well but Why Didn't They Ask Evans? for example had her too much into the background.The Marple adaptations for all the problems they have are not to be dismissed entirely. Because there are some faithful adaptations out there like A Caribbean Mystery and The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side(both better than the Hickson adaptations), and the third murder in A Caribbean Mystery works much better in the later adaptation than in the book and Hickson version where the murder was rather too much by chance. Some might find the exploration of Miss Marple's early life overwrought in Murder at the Vicarage, I thought it was genuinely touching. The Blue Geranium, A Pocketful of Rye and The Mirror Crack'd were really excellent as adaptations and on their own merits, A Murder is Announced is very good too. And while it did get confused and had too much padding at times, though it did keep to the core of both stories remarkably, Greenshaw's Folly was a brave attempt at merging two short series into one big one, doing it far better than the Poirot(a far more consistent series) adaptation of The Labours of Hercules. The series is well made, the locations and scenery from stately homes to more picturesque locations are stunning while the photography is pretty and atmospheric and the costumes are evocative and well-tailored.Good also is the music, the theme tune is catchy but can get overused like in the early Geraldine McEwan adaptations. The background music and snippets of music from the period fare very well. The scripting- though Sittaford Mystery and At Bertram's Hotel in particular are exceptions, stilted and underwritten- does have some nice doses of humour and has the right amount of intrigue, generally making an effort to make the mystery make sense. The stories come from truly great source material(A Murder is Announced is an example of Christie at her best like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None) and they are mostly compelling and fun to see unfold, with some suspenseful and humorous parts. Geraldine McEwan and Julie McKenzie fare nicely as Miss Marple. I do have a preference to McKenzie(whose adaptations are more consistent) who has more charm and more of a twinkle, McEwan is always knowing, appealingly spunky and steely and makes the most of her screen time but can have a tendency to be over eager. Neither to me are as good as Joan Hickson who IS Miss Marple.Most of the support acting is good, Zoe Wannamaker, Sharon Small, Lindsey Duncan, Timothy Dalton, Derek Jacobi, Jane Asher and Fiona Shaw very good(I'd go so far to say Small and Duncan were revelations), while Harry Enfield, Allan Davies and Elaine Page worked surprisingly well. There are exceptions however with some over-acting(Warren Clarke, Samantha Bond, Joanna Lumley, Shirley Henderson, Catherine Tate), under-acting(Freddie Fox, Jonas Armstrong) and a few wastes(Richard Briers, Jane Seymour- she was still quite good it was screen time really-, Joanna David). So all in all, very difficult to rate seeing how mixed the adaptations are- hence the lack of a rating- with a lot of good things and a lot of problems. Bethany Cox

Geraldine McEwan was a young looking 70-yr-old woman when she started making this series. For this part she was trying to be older which is all too obvious. She also speaks in a most peculiar and affected way; as though she is trying to put on a crusty accent but failing to do it without looking as though a great deal of effort is involved. It all adds up to terrible acting which could be forgiven were other actors pulling their weight. Unfortunately this is not the case. There are many "guest actors" (putting it politely) throughout the series who come from other backgrounds. Russ Abbot is a terrible comedian but a truly dismal actor and almost the same can be said for Dawn French. The whole series is rife with "jobs for the boys" (and girls) and this does Agatha Christie's stories a gross injustice. Don't bother with this series. It is absolutely abysmal. Yes, production techniques had improved by the noughties and yes... there are many lush flashback scenes that one doesn't find in earlier adaptations but this is not enough to make up for the sheer lack of any acting worth its salt. Instead of wasting time watching this series I'd urge anyone to watch the 1980s production instead with Joan Hickson playing the main part. It may be a bit dated but it's full of real actors who take a pride in their profession rather that egotists who are all trying to steal the limelight at the same time.