Miss Marple

This article first appeared in The Age on March 12, 2005

The art of Miss Marple (Sunday, ABC, 8.30 p.m.) is to balance the light and dark of Agatha Christie's original stories. A series which centres around a seemingly sweet and meek little old lady risks being sickeningly quaint but, thanks to Geraldine McEwan's (and many of the other cast members) beautiful performance as Miss Marple, it avoids this potential pitfall. Jane Marple needs her foils of course, and in last week's first episode the superlative Joanna Lumley set the tone brilliantly, as Miss Marple's friend Dolly Bantry, who has had the misfortune of having a body deposited in her library. Dolly thrills with a combination of fear and excitement at the thought of the atrocities that may have been visited on the poor unfortunate girl as well as exclaiming, at regular intervals, 'isn't she just marvelous!'. And indeed she - Miss Marple - is marvelous. Behind her cheeky smile and rosy cheeks is an acute intellect, a deeply compassionate nature, and an ability to look human nature fair square in the face with neither shock not surprise.

This week's episode, 'The Murder at the Vicarage' was the first Miss Marple mystery written by Christie, who is said to have based Jane Marple on her grandmother. Sir Derek Jacobi plays the the odious Colonel Protheroe, a man who everyone wants to kill - making it particularly hard to decide who actually did the deed once he is shot. As most crime stories are, this is a story of thwarted love, with occasional flashbacks to Miss Marple's past, and a love affair all of her very own. While tonight's episode is the weakest of the four - the supporting star power, including Jacobi, doesn't quite sparkle as Lumley did - it's all good. And at least tonight we get more than a hint of Miss Marple's depths.

Each episode examines class differences in one way or another, and Christie seems to suggest that money is a curse. Miss Marple floats ambiguously: she is neither poor nor rich. Furthermore, being old,she is anonymous. People don't notice her, or take her seriously - thus allowing her to gather the clues that lead her to solve each week's crime. The fluidity of identity in general is scrutinized, with Miss Marple pointing out, more than once, that since the war it was hard to know who was alive or dead, where in Europe people might be living, and whether the names they used were their own. Set in the Late Forties and early Fifties, this is a Britain undergoing a slow and painful transformation, as it's long cherished notions of the class system and colonial power corrupt.

There is a formula to each episode, but it's a pleasurable one and it's a joy to see Miss Marple winning over the policeman in charge of the case each week . Tonight the wonderfully named Inspector Slack refuses to believe that a frail old maid would know anything of the lust and passion that motivates murder, but it only takes Miss Marple a few cups of tea to set him straight. Only the gorgeous Detective Inspector Campbell ( John Hannah), from the final episode: '4.50 From Paddington', has the sense to never doubt her.

The series also works so well because it manages to bring a modern sensibility to the screen without being painfully ironic . Characters refer to Cluedo ('Who am I? Miss Peacock?') and are aware of the absurdity that each week there are multiple suspects. But this self referencing is a mere nod to the reader, before Miss Marple gets on with the more serious task of figuring out whodunnit.

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