I grew up with Joan Hickson in the role and would still rate her as the most authentic as others have said. My one criticism would be that she played it so straight as to be practically completely lacking in fun. Now this may have been as Christie intended, but the fun that other Marples (McEwan in particular) managed to bring to the character has made me realise that Hickson could have been slightly more creative in her interpretation, particularly as she had a history of being able to do comedy.
Rutherford's character was enormous fun and fitted the films she was in brilliantly. She wasn't remotely Miss Marple except in name but it didn't matter.
I've grown to like McEwan's Marple more and more over the years. She's another who isn't really the Marple that Christie intended but if you can get over the ripping to bits of the plotlines she's actually rather charming.
McKenzie seems to be getting a lot of flak on here. Like McEwan, you have to get over the plotline changes before you can fairly assess what she does with the role. My own interpretation is that she's possibly trying to find some middle ground between McEwan and Hickson. She's not as avant-garde as McEwan but is less traditional than Hickson. She's not quite pulling it off but it's not bad. I don't actually see her as too young and pretty for the role; she's now 72 (hardly young) and there's no rule that says that Miss Marple has to be an ugly, old boot. Personally, I think she looks the most authentic bar Hickson.
I could have typed that!. I did like Higson but she did need injecting with a touch of the lovely Dame Margaret who I very briefly met as a teenager..a gorgeous woman.
These days I have no doubt they would say that the Dame "made the role her own" in other words not what was really intended but good cinema.
At first I didn't like McEwan but on rewatching, I loved the "twinkle" and bittersweet history woven into the role. Normally I hate a dollop of " sex" given to characters for no reason ( eg Sherlock) but it works IM(NS)HO with this actress.
Julia has grown on me mainly because I think she is a return to the common-sense approach of Higson. Yup no reason why Marple should not be a "pretty" old lady..many of her generation ( as McEwan shows) would have been long married had it not been for WW1. My favourite "aunt" (mum's friend) was the prettiest and never married as her beloved fiance as killed in WW2.Maybe that's why I warmed to McEwan's Marple..I like a Marple who showed a real understanding of young love and relationship between her and Lumley was just great..and that role is (agian IM(NS)HO)one of her best
Geraldine McEwan was just too mannered for me (as she was as Jean Brodie), too much eye-twinkle and sniff. I stopped watching it because of her.
I suppose Joan Hickson was the best, all round. I liked her and Margaret Rutherford about equally. I agree Julia McKenzie's somewhere between Hickson and McEwan; she was good too.
Joan Hickson by a country mile. She was wonderful as Miss Marple and those adaptations were also great - really faithful to the books.
I couldn't stand Geraldine McEwan in the part at first but she's grown on me a bit. Most of the adaptations are awful though, full of unnecessary changes and ham fisted attempts to introduce more sex into the stories. And as for that stupid back story where Miss Marple is supposed to have had a fling with a married man; I wonder what idiot thought that would be a good idea.
I'm not mad about Julia McKenzie in the role and they've made a dogs dinner of most of the adaptations.
Wanted to add that the theme tune to Hickson's Miss Marple is a beautiful and evocative piece of music. Listening to it transports me back to our living room, in the 80's, Sunday evenings, all the family, sitting on our old settee and staying up til 9 o'clock
Also, even though it wasn't one of my favourite stories overall, the friendship of the two sisters with Jane Marple in They Do It With Mirrors is ever so touching. The final sequence always leaves me misty eyed!
Margaret Rutherford - fun in a way but no resemblance at all to Christie's character or plots.
Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie - ridiculous changes to the novels, and GM is much too mannered as was said earlier. The stupid back story seems to be based on the idea that we are not grown-up enough to imagine a happily unmarried elderly lady. GM is also too wriggly.
Joan Hickson - perfect. She matches the description in the books, and she conveys an undercurrent of humour as well as cleverness. Love the theme tune too.
Wanted to add that the theme tune to Hickson's Miss Marple is a beautiful and evocative piece of music. Listening to it transports me back to our living room, in the 80's, Sunday evenings, all the family, sitting on our old settee and staying up til 9 o'clock
The theme tune is sublime, I absolutely agree.
It evokes an image of pastoral rural England so beautifully.
Musically, the way different instruments take the lead to repeat the theme - oboe, flute and finally trumpet, is really effective.
I love the little fugue between 0:40 and 0:55 where the horns ask a question and the strings answer them. It's like a musical conversation.
And throughout you've got a return to the main theme and the main rhythm, which I suppose represents continuity and a feeling of security. Terrible things happen, but Danemead Cottage is always there, with Miss Marple inside, sorting things out!
Joan Hickson was the best, Julian Mckenzie is my second choice, having initially disliked Geraldine McEwan, on seeing them again, I now have her in third. Angela Lansbury was OK, and on the back of it she got Murder She Wrote, Margaret Rutherford played it for laughs, her portrial was not particularly like by Agatha Christie.
Having grown up with Margaret Rutherford and have seen all the others since, I will say that for a jolly good romp, it has to be Margaret Rutherford......BUT, the definitive actress to play Miss Jane Marple has to Joan Hickson followed by Geraldine McEwan.....never ever liked Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple.
Gotta be Joan Hickson. She was slighty scary almost hypnotic when you saw her working things out mentally, then the take no prisoners way she delivered the coup de grace to the baddies
It evokes an image of pastoral rural England so beautifully.
Musically, the way different instruments take the lead to repeat the theme - oboe, flute and finally trumpet, is really effective.
I love the little fugue between 0:40 and 0:55 where the horns ask a question and the strings answer them. It's like a musical conversation.
And throughout you've got a return to the main theme and the main rhythm, which I suppose represents continuity and a feeling of security. Terrible things happen, but Danemead Cottage is always there, with Miss Marple inside, sorting things out!
Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley and John Altman did a bang-up job on the music. Part of ths success of the series ont eh fantastic theme tune.
I'd also like to mention some of the otehr bits of music in the show which are so effective. The creepy bits (the old house in Sleeping Murder, the barn in 4.50 from Paddington) are so effective.
The abovenamed gents were working on the BBC's wonderful civil war drama By the Sword Divided at the same time as Miss Marple ... give this a whirl and make comparisons!
As others have said: Joan Hickson without a doubt.
Margaret Rutherford was wonderful and a joy to watch in the role, but she was miles away from the character that Agatha Christie wrote. But I could watch Murder at the Gallop, or Murder She Said anyday over all the others!
Since she is known as Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote it's difficult for me to accept Angela Lansbury as Miss M
Presumably the OP means Angela Lansbury's Miss Marple in the Hollywood version of the Mirror Crack'd.
The film is an absolute stinker, and Angela Lansbury is terrible in it, too.
Presumably the OP means Angela Lansbury's Miss Marple in the Hollywood version of the Mirror Crack'd.
The film is an absolute stinker, and Angela Lansbury is terrible in it, too.
Presumably the OP means Angela Lansbury's Miss Marple in the Hollywood version of the Mirror Crack'd.
The film is an absolute stinker, and Angela Lansbury is terrible in it, too.
Oww it's not that bad imo. It suffered a bit from the storyy being transplanted from the 1940s/1950s to the 1980s.
I prefer Angela Lansbury to Julia McKenzie anyway.
Joan Hickson - as has been said already, she was closest to the way she was written in the books.
I love the old Margaret Rutherford films though, although they're not much like the books at all - they're one of my guilty pleasures and I watch them whenever they're on:o:D
Comments
I could have typed that!. I did like Higson but she did need injecting with a touch of the lovely Dame Margaret who I very briefly met as a teenager..a gorgeous woman.
These days I have no doubt they would say that the Dame "made the role her own" in other words not what was really intended but good cinema.
At first I didn't like McEwan but on rewatching, I loved the "twinkle" and bittersweet history woven into the role. Normally I hate a dollop of " sex" given to characters for no reason ( eg Sherlock) but it works IM(NS)HO with this actress.
Julia has grown on me mainly because I think she is a return to the common-sense approach of Higson. Yup no reason why Marple should not be a "pretty" old lady..many of her generation ( as McEwan shows) would have been long married had it not been for WW1. My favourite "aunt" (mum's friend) was the prettiest and never married as her beloved fiance as killed in WW2.Maybe that's why I warmed to McEwan's Marple..I like a Marple who showed a real understanding of young love and relationship between her and Lumley was just great..and that role is (agian IM(NS)HO)one of her best
I suppose Joan Hickson was the best, all round. I liked her and Margaret Rutherford about equally. I agree Julia McKenzie's somewhere between Hickson and McEwan; she was good too.
Joan Hickson hands down
I couldn't stand Geraldine McEwan in the part at first but she's grown on me a bit. Most of the adaptations are awful though, full of unnecessary changes and ham fisted attempts to introduce more sex into the stories. And as for that stupid back story where Miss Marple is supposed to have had a fling with a married man; I wonder what idiot thought that would be a good idea.
I'm not mad about Julia McKenzie in the role and they've made a dogs dinner of most of the adaptations.
That was on Saturday night as well. Alibi showed the Joan Hickson version straight afterwards. There was no comparison!
Also, even though it wasn't one of my favourite stories overall, the friendship of the two sisters with Jane Marple in They Do It With Mirrors is ever so touching. The final sequence always leaves me misty eyed!
We're all doomed.
Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie - ridiculous changes to the novels, and GM is much too mannered as was said earlier. The stupid back story seems to be based on the idea that we are not grown-up enough to imagine a happily unmarried elderly lady. GM is also too wriggly.
Joan Hickson - perfect. She matches the description in the books, and she conveys an undercurrent of humour as well as cleverness. Love the theme tune too.
The theme tune is sublime, I absolutely agree.
It evokes an image of pastoral rural England so beautifully.
Musically, the way different instruments take the lead to repeat the theme - oboe, flute and finally trumpet, is really effective.
Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5wSGzqNmPU
I love the little fugue between 0:40 and 0:55 where the horns ask a question and the strings answer them. It's like a musical conversation.
And throughout you've got a return to the main theme and the main rhythm, which I suppose represents continuity and a feeling of security. Terrible things happen, but Danemead Cottage is always there, with Miss Marple inside, sorting things out!
Totally agree.
Agree on both counts. GE was beady eyed and shrill.
Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley and John Altman did a bang-up job on the music. Part of ths success of the series ont eh fantastic theme tune.
I'd also like to mention some of the otehr bits of music in the show which are so effective. The creepy bits (the old house in Sleeping Murder, the barn in 4.50 from Paddington) are so effective.
The abovenamed gents were working on the BBC's wonderful civil war drama By the Sword Divided at the same time as Miss Marple ... give this a whirl and make comparisons!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDBspYCHkqI
Margaret Rutherford was wonderful and a joy to watch in the role, but she was miles away from the character that Agatha Christie wrote. But I could watch Murder at the Gallop, or Murder She Said anyday over all the others!
Despise the ITV Marples for the absolute liberties they take with plot and character
Since she is known as Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote it's difficult for me to accept Angela Lansbury as Miss M
Helen Hayes a bit too American
The Margaret Rutherford films rather enjoyable in a harmless way
June Whitfield did a good job in the role for Radio 4
Presumably the OP means Angela Lansbury's Miss Marple in the Hollywood version of the Mirror Crack'd.
The film is an absolute stinker, and Angela Lansbury is terrible in it, too.
I assumed that's what they meant as well
Oww it's not that bad imo. It suffered a bit from the storyy being transplanted from the 1940s/1950s to the 1980s.
I prefer Angela Lansbury to Julia McKenzie anyway.
Agreed on both points.