Marple Syrup

I watched the latest BBC production of "Miss Marple" last night. It wasn't great, but when International Mystery shows something I've already seen, I'll switch over to Masterpiece Theater. 

My introduction to Miss Marple on screen was the movies made in the early sixties starring Margaret Rutherford. I loved those movies, not so much because they were accurate portrayals of the Agatha Christie books, but because they seemed so "veddy British" and because Margaret Rutherford was wonderful in the part. Her Miss Marple was a hardy and stalwart figure played for broad comedy. I'd never been exposed to that sort of absurd English humor before and I loved it. I remember sitting in the almost empty theater loudly cracking up at her antics.

The quintessential Miss Marple was Joan Hickson from the 1984-1992 BBC series. She didn't look the way I pictured Miss Marple when I was reading the books (so far none of the actresses do), but she acted like Miss Marple: demurely meek on the outside, but intelligent and shrewd underneath her little old lady exterior.

There have been two BBC Miss Marples since then: Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie (see above photo). Neither of them are as good as Joan Hickson. Geraldine McEwan was growing on me, but then she disappeared from the series and Julia McKenzie took over. She's entirely too saccharine for the role. The original Miss Marple had an edge to her; this latest incarnation is insipidly sweet.