Masterpiece: Miss Marple returns

This Sunday, Julia McKenzie returns as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple on Masterpiece. Note the times.

Miss Marple: "A Caribbean Mystery" – Sunday, September 21st at 8pm ET on PBS

Miss Marple: "Greenshaw's Folly" – Sunday, September 21st at 9:30pm ET on PBS

Miss Marple: "Endless Night" – Sunday, September 28 at 9pm ET on PBS

A Caribbean Mystery: 

While staying at a lavish tropical island hotel, Miss Marple investigates the
 sudden death of a fellow guest. With the help of a curmudgeonly business tycoon, Miss Marple unravels a web of deceit, murder and "dark magic," leaving her to consider every one of the hotel's guests as a suspect. Sir Antony Sher (God on Trial) guest stars.

Filmed on location in South Africa and based on Christie's 1964 novel, A Caribbean Mystery was adapted by comedian, author and actor Charlie Higson, who has a cameo as the unassuming American ornithologist James Bond. Also starring are MyAnna Buring (Downton Abbey), Pippa Bennett Warner (Case Histories), and Charity Wakefield (Any Human Heart).

Fall Masterpiece Mystery! Line-Up

Having just posted a few of the MASTERPIECE programs coming this summer on PBS, I decided to see what's up for the Fall. Glad I did, because there's a great Mystery! line-up, including Death Comes to Pemberley, an adaptation of P.D. James’ novel, starring Matthew Rhys (The Americans) and Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House). Bill Nighy (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel reprises his role as MI5 spy Johnny Worricker —first seen in 2011’s acclaimed Page Eight — in two new Worricker stories: Turks & Caicos and Salting the Battlefield. Also, Julia McKenzie returns as Miss Marple, and Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox reprise their roles in a new season of Inspector Lewis. 
 
Miss Marple

Acclaimed British actress Julia McKenzie (Cranford) returns as spinster sleuth Miss Marple in three new episodes of the popular Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series – A Caribbean Mystery, Greenshaw’s Folly and Endless Night. Sundays, September 21 and 28, 2014

Inspector Lewis, Season 7

Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox return for a seventh season of the beloved Inspector Lewis series. Hathaway has been promoted to Inspector after an extended break from the force, and Lewis is enjoying retired life until he’s asked to team up with his old colleague again. With their partnership renewed under altered circumstances, the duo continues to solve crime in the seemingly perfect academic haven of Oxford.  Sundays, October 5-19, 2014, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

Death Comes to Pemberley

An adaptation of P.D. James’ witty and inventive continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice picks up the story six years after the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy. As preparations are being made for a ball at their Pemberley home, the discovery of a corpse brings an abrupt and shocking halt to the proceedings — and a threat to all that the Darcys hold dear. Sundays, October 26-November 2, 2014, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

Worricker: Turks & Caicos

Bill Nighy reprises his role as MI5 spy Johnny Worricker in a follow-up to the acclaimed  Page Eight (MASTERPIECE, 2011). Worricker, who has just left his job at MI5, escapes to the distant islands of Turks & Caicos, where an order from the CIA puts him back to work. The top-tier cast also includes Christopher Walken, Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes. Written and directed by David Hare. Sunday, November 9, 2014, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET

Worricker: Salting the Battlefield

The Worricker trilogy concludes with Johnny (Bill Nighy) and Margot (Helena Bonham Carter) managing to stay ahead of an international dragnet all across Europe. British Prime Minister Alec Beasley (Ralph Fiennes) and old MI5 colleague Jill Tankard (Judy Davis) desperately want Johnny back —but for different reasons. Who will win this frenzied game of spy versus spy? Written and directed by David Hare.  Sunday, November 16, 2014, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET

Happy Birthday, Margaret Rutherford

In honor of Dame Margaret Rutherford's Birthday (May 11), TCM is showing four movies in which she portrays Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Check your local listing for times.

Murder She Said (1961)
Murder at the Gallop (1963)
Murder Most Foul (1964)
The Alphabet Murder (1965)

Margaret Rutherford Biography from TCM
Gifted, endearing character player, in films since the mid-1930s. A master scene-stealer, Rutherford personified the eccentric English spinster in a number of famous comedies, including David Lean's classic "Blithe Spirit" (1945), as the enthusiastic, bicycle-riding psychic, Madame Arcati. In "The Happiest Days of Your Life" (1950), she teamed beautifully with Alistair Sim for a rollicking secondary school farce. With her plump figure, small and piercing eyes, and bulldog expression, Rutherford could embody a spirit of prim, stiff-upper-lip efficiency or could play a classic, fidgety bungler with equal ease. She made a memorably nervous Miss Prism in a sterling film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's farce, "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1952). Rutherford is perhaps best known as the indomitable title character in four "Miss Marple" mystery films of the 60s. Most of Rutherford's credits are British, but she won an Academy Award for her hilarious rendition of a daffy duchess down on her luck in the old-fashioned, all-star Hollywood anthology drama, "The V.I.P.s" (1963). This much-loved trouper was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the late 60s shortly before her death.

Hat Tip: Doc Quartermass

Masterpiece Mystery! 2011 Season

I can't wait for the new season of Masterpiece Mystery! For those of you who were worried that Inspector Lewis wouldn't be on the list, fear not. Four new Inspector Lewis episodes have been added to the PBS schedule. They'll air in September. This season also sees the debut of the Aurelio Zen mysteries, based on the books by Michael Dibdin. Just an FYI, the episodes are usually on the website the week or so after they air, so be sure and check.

Hercule Poirot
A trio of new episodes feature David Suchet as the suave Belgian detective. In Three Act Tragedy (June 19), a cocktail party is the scene of a crime, while in The Clocks (June 26), multiple frozen clocks factor into a murder. Poirot investigates a death at a festive event turned foul in Hallowe'en Party (July 3).

Miss Marple
Julia McKenzie is back as Agatha Christie's detective with a gentle smile and probing mind in the all-new episode The Pale Horse (July 10). Miss Marple's old friend is found murdered, and when she receives a list of names sent by the victim before his death, Miss Marple seeks justice.

Zen
What does an honest cop do when his bosses are on the side of the lawbreakers? Outwitting prosecutors, politicians, mobsters, kidnappers and killers, Detective Aurelio Zen brings justice to modern-day Italy. Rufus Sewell stars as Zen, based on the books of Michael Dibdin. Episodes: Vendetta, Cabal, Ratking. Zen premieres July 17, 24 & 31.

Inspector Lewis
Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox are back as Inspector Lewis and DS Hathaway in four new Oxford University-based whodunits, which have them solving cases at an all-female college, investigating the poisoning of a bishop, looking into a clinical trial and examining a sinister blackmail plot. Inspector Lewis: Series IV September 4, 18, 25 and October 9.

Miss Marple Disney Update

Disney Miss Marple Update! See original story HERE.

Hollywood Entertainment Breaking News - Nikki Finke on Deadline.com/hollywood: "Chorion, the company which owns the rights to Agatha Christie, has told the BBC that the deal for Disney to remake Miss Marple has not closed. The Brit rights company and its reps were unavailable to elaborate.

There has been general scorn over here since Deadline revealed Disney’s idea of reinventing Miss Marple as a younger, sassier amateur sleuth, with Jennifer Garner attached to play Marple. Her Vandalia Films label will produce. Disney confirmed the deal had gone down. Agatha Christie’s biographer Laura Thompson said that the author would not have been happy with Disney’s desire to mess with tradition.

MGM cast Margaret Rutherford as Marple after it bought the rights in the late 50s. But Christie even disliked Rutherford’s interpretation of Marple. She complained in one letter: “Why don’t they just invent a new character? Then they can have their cheap fun and leave me and my creations alone.”"

Hat Tip: Bill Crider

Miss Marple coming to the big screen again

News Flash: 3/29:  According to Deadline.com, Disney will revive the Agatha Christie mystery series, "but with one big difference: instead of the elderly spinster who lives in the English village of St. Mary's Mead and solves mysteries as a hobby, the new configuration is for Mark Frost to script a version where Marple is in her 30s or 40s." Jennifer Garner is slated to portray Miss Marple.
*** 
 
Hollywood thinks it can do it 'again' and better. We'll see, but I doubt it. I've so enjoyed the BBC productions of Miss Marple in recent years, and there have been many former film incarnations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Now Disney has closed a deal to the movie rights on the character of Miss Marple. Key: The Character and not the books.

Mark Frost has been tapped to write the screenplay.

Miss Marple first appeared on screen in 1961 in Murder, She Said, portrayed by Margaret Rutherford, who was 70 when she played the character in the first of a series of movies. Angela Landsbury played the character in 1980’s The Mirror Crack’d.

Disney is not making a period movie however but looking do a contemporary version.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, "hiring Frost may also signal an intent to make something with an edge. The writer, whose recent credits include penning the Fantastic Four movies, is best known for co-creating the landmark TV series Twin Peaks with David Lynch."

Hat Tip: @Popculturenerd (Twitter)

Poirot Returns to PBS

Agatha Christie is back! Six by Agatha on Masterpiece Mystery! starts on Sunday, June 21 on PBS. There will be two episodes of Poirot and four episodes of Miss Marple.

David Suchet revives his role as Poirot, and he's at the top of his form. He's such a fine actor. Suchet is Poirot in this his signature role as the Belgian private eye who uses his 'little gray cells' to crack the case. This is Suchet's 20th year as Poirot, and he says," The time has flown by. It's wonderful that people see a character who is cocky, proud, and boastful, and yet they want to spend time with him. There is enormous affection for the little man." Read an interview with David Suchet here.

I've seen the first Poirot, Cat Among the Pigeons, and it's a wonderful production. Everything I expect from a Christie is here--costuming, setting, plotting. I particularly like the unusual camera angles in this new series, and that carries over to the Miss Marples, as well. Very successful. Watch a clip of Cat Among the Pigeons, here.

Julia McKenzie is the new Miss Marple, and she does an excellent job. Past Miss Marples have included Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury, Joan Hickson (my favorite) and Geraldine McEwan. Julia McKenzie does a smashing job, and I'll blog about that later when closer to the the first in that series, A Pocket Full of Rye, scheduled for July 12.

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