Agatha Christie's Miss Marple

Celebrated actress Julia McKenzie (Cranford; Notes On A Scandal) stars as the world-famous crime writer, Miss Jane Marple in this stunning collection of four new murder mysteries. Miss Marple's sweet old lady exterior hides an excellent perception of human nature and a razor sharp intuition for solving crimes--murderers underestimate her at their peril!
The Blue Geranium
Set in the picturesque village of Little Ambrose, the wealthy and widely disliked Mary Pritchard (Sharon Small, Murderland) is found dead. The circumstances are bemusing and even Miss Marple is perplexed. Agoraphobic Mary had a well-known fear of anything blue, but did she really die of shock when the geranium in her wallpaper changed colour? Also starring Toby Stephens (Robin Hood, Jane Eyre), Kevin R. McNally (Wuthering Heights, Valkyrie), Joanna Page (Gavin and Stacey, Love Actually), Claudie Blakley (Cranford, Lark Rise to Candleford), Claire Rushbrook (Collision, Whitechapel), Caroline Catz (Doc Martin, The Vice), Patrick Baladi (Bodies), Paul Rhys (The Queen, Beethoven) and David Calder (Red Riding, The Last Enemy).
The Pale Horse
Featuring ingenious deceptions and black magic, The Pale Horse sees Miss Marple investigate the brutal murder of an old friend. The day after Father Gorman is found dead she receives a mysterious letter from him containing a list of names. His final act was to administer the last rites to a dying woman, Mrs Davis, so Miss Marple starts by visiting her boarding house. It turns out to be a good hunch. Lodger Paul Osborne describes a man he saw following Father Gorman on the night he died, and she also chances upon a slip of paper bearing the name of The Pale Horse Inn. At this creepy establishment Miss Marple is greeted by three modern-day witches. Indeed, the whole village is steeped in the occult. When an eccentric local is also killed, Miss Marple is forced to take the law into her own hands.
The Secret Of Chimneys
A lavish weekend party sees Miss Marple accompany Lady Virginia Revel (Charlotte Salt, Tudors, Beowulf) to her family home of Chimneys - a house which was once prized for its diplomatic gatherings until a rare diamond was stolen from the premises over twenty years ago. Virginia must decide by the end of the weekend whether to accept a marriage proposal from the tenacious career politician George Lomax (Adam Godley, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Cor Blimey!) or to follow her heart and the courtship of another more adventurous suitor, Anthony Cade (Jonas Armstrong, Robin Hood, The Street). Throughout the course of the evening, a contract for the sale of the house is drawn up only for the purchaser to be found dead in a secret passageway within its walls.
The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side
Hollywood star Marina Gregg (Lindsay Duncan, Margaret, Criminal Justice), has left the palm trees and bright lights of Los Angeles for the leafy lanes and picturesque countryside of St Mary Mead, England. She has taken up residence at Gossington Hall with her dashing young English husband, film director Jason Rudd (Nigel Harman, Hotel Babylon, EastEnders), his secretary, Ella Blunt (Victoria Smurfitt, Trial and Retribution),and her personal assistant, Hailey Preston (Brennan Brown). When the glamorous couple decide to throw a party, the grounds are abuzz with curious locals, including previous owner of Gossington Hall Dolly Bantry (Joanna Lumley, Absolutely Fabulous). But when fan Heather Badcock (Caroline Quentin, Blue Murder, Life of Riley) consumes a poisoned daiquiri, Marina finds herself starring in a real-life mystery, supported by Miss Marple and Inspector Hewitt, who suspect that the lethal cocktail was intended for someone other than Marina's harmless admirer.

Granada Television and the PBS Mystery! series' recent Marple episodes continue to delight with such distinctive vitality, wit, and stylishness one may never again think of tea rooms in the English countryside as "quaint" settings. Geraldine McEwan (Vanity Fair) returns as Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple, elderly sleuth with a keenly discerning eye and sweet smile that takes the sting out of her blunt observations of friends and murder suspects alike. As with series 1, the quartet of mysteries in series 2, set shortly after World War II, are ensemble affairs filled out by such familiar faces as Timothy Dalton, Charles Dance, Greta Scacchi, Anthony Andrews, Patricia Hodge, and Imogen Stubbs. Rather than pound out a certain visual and tonal sameness over all four stories, each 90-minute episode seems to be approached as a stand-alone affair, giving writers, directors, and production teams a lot of leeway to give each story a unique stamp.
"Sleeping Murder" stars Sophia Myles as Gwenda Halliday, a young woman haunted by flashbacks of the memory of a killing she observed as a little girl in a stately British house. Problem is, Gwenda has only recently moved to Britain for the first time in her life, after growing up in India. Dawn French, Martin Kemp, and Geraldine Chaplin also star in the tale, which involves an old troupe of actors, a jewelry theft, and a very surprising conclusion. "By the Pricking of My Thumbs" concerns the disappearance of a doddering old woman who leaves behind a strange, spooky painting of a cottage in the woods, an unnerving figure lurking in the structure's window. Miss Marple is on the trail, but she allows the lonely, alcoholic wife (Scacchi) of a government investigator (Andrews) to take the lead—a boost to the younger woman's self-esteem.

The ambitious "The Moving Finger" is the most singular episode in series 2, a cheeky--almost subversive--vision of a rosy, picture-postcard village whose tranquility is undone by a series of hateful letters mailed to individuals in the community. Miss Marple, observing the tragic effects of these missives on relationships and reputations, is practically in the background in this story, watching closely as a nihilistic young man (James D'Arcy) comes out of his cynical, alcohol-laced haze to investigate the source of so much misery. (Bonus: director Ken Russell appears as the local, red-cheeked vicar.) Finally, "The Sittaford Mystery" finds Timothy Dalton playing a likely prospect to become prime minister, until he's stabbed to death following a séance. Set in a rundown hotel during a severe winter storm, the episode co-stars James Murray, Rita Tushingham, and comic-actor-director Mel Smith, the latter as the late, great man's touchingly loyal, right-hand man. Twenty-first century adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, which sees her put all her detective skills to use in four feature length episodes: 'The Body In The Library', 'A Murder Is Announced', 'Murder At The Vicarage' and '4.50 From Paddington'.

Four classic Miss Marple mysteries, including: "By The Pricking Of My Thumbs", "The Moving Finger", "The Sittaford Mystery" and "The Sleeping Murder".

Geraldine McEwan brings Agatha Christie's much loved sleuth to life in the hugely successful MARPLE television series. With a stellar supporting cast including Jane Seymour, Julian Sands, and Vincent Regan. This collection offers four episodes from the show's third series: TOWARDS ZERO, NEMESIS. ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE and AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL.

Julia McKenzie stars as the titular sleuth in the episodes 'A Pocket Full Of Rye', 'Murder Is Easy', 'Why Didn't They Ask Evans', and 'They Do It With Mirrors'.