The more familiar names include Prunella Scales from Faulty Towers, Joan Collins from Dynasty and Sylvia Syms from Doctor Who. Part of the “fun”-a word also used on the back of the box-is recognizing a favorite star, more often than not in a minor role.

And the ladies’ fashions of this time, although there are occasional ridiculous exceptions, represent to many the height of modern women’s apparel and hair styles. and lavish post-World War II period detail.” It’s something of a treat to see the vintage cars of the time and to know that the country homes used in the filming are much as they were in the ’30s and ’40s.

Hum-m-m-m- The pace is usually so slow, the suspects so numerous, the murders so plentiful at times, that a less excitable description is more apt-“entertaining,” maybe “diverting.” What is true from among the box superlatives is the “picturesque English scenery, grand estates. The DVD box propaganda boasts of four “gripping” mysteries. Dame Christie had her own thoughts on this flippant crossbreeding: “I get an unregenerate pleasure when I think they’re not being a success.” In both Evans and Easy, other individuals do the sleuthing with Miss Marple in a subservient role, often as little more than an eavesdropper, like a “stuck in” bonus character, at the worst as an afterthought. The last two are not actual Marple mysteries, nor are they adapted from Poirot originals, as has often occurred in some supposed “Marple” entries. Julia McKenzie immediately assumed the role and made four TV episodes which comprise Series 4: A Pocket Full of Rye, They Do It with Mirrors, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? and Murder Is Easy. She retired after her twelfth Miss Marple, Ordeal by Innocence, in 2007. The first three sets in the series feature Geraldine McEwan in the role.

Īcorn Media/ITV Global Entertainment has released, on four DVDs, Series 4 of Miss Marple mysteries, Agatha Christie’s elderly spinster sleuth. Never armed, always knitting, forever listening subdued, philosophically homespun and, yes, dowdy.

They do it with mirrors julia mckenzie