Miss Marple - The Body In The Library

Customer Reviews:

Give Them An Inch..........2008-01-01

One of the joys of a Miss Marple is the moment she castigates herself for being so terribly, terribly stupid and calls for Inch. Inch being the local taxi firm, we know she's off to the station for a train to London, and will soon be searching the records at Somerset House for proof that character X is character Y's secret spouse/parent/offspring.

The Inch ploy has been bulldozed from this adaptation and the denouement has sadly been brought in line with Arts Council box-ticking requirements.

No respect.......2007-05-06

The story is well filmed but the end is a shame, does not respect Agatha Christy, our time is not a reason to change the end with an also stupid idea. Joan Hickson stay really my preferred Miss Marple for ever.

The Body in the Library.......2007-03-18

When these new adaptations were announced, fans of the original novels were sceptical. For one thing, a very fine set of adaptations had already been produced by the BBC during the eighties, making Joan Hickson the definitive Miss Marple. Not only that, but ITV apparently planned to make changes to the settings and characters, in order to bring the stories up to date.

Later installments have, admittedly, borne this out somewhat, but in this first installment, there isn't very much to worry about. As with the recent revamped Poirot series, a reimagining proves to be exactly what these novels need - while the latest outings for David Suchet's bouffant Belgian exploited the darker aspects of Christie's novels however, these new versions of the St Mary Mead-set Marple novels have done exactly the opposite, exploiting the capacity for humour in the source material. The result is a series which should manage to please both the die-hard Christie fans eager for faithful small-screen actualisations of their favourite books, and a more casual audience weary of po-faced detective adaptations - giving the former sumptuous period detail and a respect for the intricacies of the novels' plots, and providing the latter with a welcome dose of comic relief, without ever insulting the intelligence of either. It's a style Christie herself utilised splendidly in early thrillers such as The Seven Dials Mystery and her ongoing series of mysteries featuring husband and wife team, Tommy & Tuppence.

The tale begins with the discovery of the body of a platinum blonde in a party dress in the library of Gossington Hall, home of Dolly and Colonel Bantry. Dolly turns to her friend, Jane Marple, in the hope that she can solve the mystery and avoid a scandal.

Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple is a delightful cross between Hickson's frail but sharp old lady and Margaret Rutherford's dotty maiden aunt, retaining the vivacity of the latter and the surprising penatrativenss of the former. Larger-than-life support is provided by Simon Callow as Colonel Melchett and a fabulously camp Johanna Lummley as Dolly.

It is a common misconception that Mrs Christie's novels are cliched. They aren't - they've simply become so. When they were written, back in the day, they were very original - even sophisticated at times (A Murder is Announced, the fourth in this series of adaptations, contains a subtle, yet, for its time, beautifully unashamed depiction of an elderly lesbian couple which even thoroughly modern authors like Sarah Waters would be proud of). Nevertheless, in the twenty-first century, an endless stream of inferior imitations and adaptations have bred contempt for these ingenious tales, making what was once original and suspensful appear cliched and mundane.

Kevin Elyot's masterful adaptation tackles this problem admirably. Wearing its ostentatiousness proudly on its sleeves like diamond-encrusted cuff-links, Elyot's script charges through the story, aided by some astute direction, gleefully drawing attention to each and every murder mystery cliché and revelling in it. When one of the characters explains, in a voice-over, for instance, that "Mr Jefferson insisted they call the police at once", the accompanying clip is of the said Mr Jefferson banging on a door, loudly proclaiming, "I insist you call the police at once!"

Admittedly, the slight change to the solution, in order to facilitate a love affair between two female killers as opposed to one between two heterosexual conspiritors was an odd one - but it fitted perfectly with the hilariously OTT tone of the whole, and it didn't actually change the plot very much at all. Besides which, it hepled make Miss Marple more demonstrably the surprisingly worldly figure she is often descirbed as being in the books. It also provided a nice hint of a tragic love affair in Miss Marple's past, adding a touch of sadness to the camp veneer (it's no wonder the chatracter is adored by gay people).

To achieve an adaptation that fits marvellously into the self-mocking postmodernism of the most successful elements of contemporary culture whilst simultaneously remaining so completely true to the original 1940's source seems impossible - yet that is exactly what Elyot's script manages to do. This is refreshing, quality television - and a wonderful adaptation to boot.

Miss Marple: The Body in the Library/A Murder Is Announced/A Pocketful of Rye [1983] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Average customer rating:

Never underestimate Miss Marple. She's not afraid to turn over a stone or two
"There she sits: an elderly spinster; sweet, placid ...
A great DVD collection!
The BBC TV Aunt Jane's turned into movies.

Miss Marple: The Body in the Library/A Murder Is Announced/A Pocketful of Rye [1983] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Joan Hickson , Gwen Watford , Moray Watson , Valentine Dyall , and Karin Foley
Director: John A. Davis (II) , Tony Wharmby , Silvio Narizzano , David Giles (III) , and Guy Slater
Manufacturer: BBC Warner
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000068UE9
Release Date: 2002-08-27

Customer Reviews:

Never underestimate Miss Marple. She's not afraid to turn over a stone or two.......2007-08-10

"You're telling me to look for a Mr. X," says Inspector Craddock (John Castle) to Miss Jane Marple (Joan Hickson) during tea. The inspector had thought he was dealing with a rather straight forward case of murder in the village of Chipping Cleghorn.

"A Mr., Mrs. or Miss X, I should say," replies Miss Marple. She is an old woman who may knit and garden, but she has very sharp eyes. "You know, Inspector," she continues, "some of the best murderers are women, especially in an English village. Turn over a stone and you'll have no idea what will crawl out." Miss Marple takes another sip of tea.

Nor should any murderer underestimate this slightly frail, inquisitive and observant woman, long a resident of the English village of St. Mary Mead, who is given to wearing tweeds and sensible shoes. Miss Marple has a mind as logical as a trap. As she says, "It's very dangerous to believe people. I haven't for years." When murder has been done, those aged eyes see things, especially in the behavior and habits of those around her, which lead to retribution. As played by Joan Hickson, Miss Marple is invariably courteous and very much of the old school when it comes to manners. She may occasionally offer advice, but is remarkably realistic. "Good advice is almost certain to be ignored," she says, "but that's no reason for not giving it." She may take part in a bit of gossip, but almost always she is giving a bit of information in order to get even more back. Hickson's Miss Marple is not without empathy or friends, but she essentially is a person quite satisfied to do her gardening. She does not twinkle.

In A Murder Is Announced (1985), one of three feature-length made-for-TV movies in this collection, Miss Marple finds herself dealing with an almost intractably clever series of murders set in the picture-perfect village of Chipping Cleghorn, all driven by a family relationship that goes back a generation. The mystery is complex, the motives selfish, the manners of the characters are all genteel, and the bodies pile up. The murderer is singularly ruthless.

With The Body in the Library (1984), Miss Marple finds herself with a seemingly anonymous body found in the library of Gossington Hall, stately home of the stately Colonel and Mrs. Bantry.

And with A Pocketful of Rye (1985), Miss Marple finds that with the Fortescue family, she will need all her powers of observation to sort through the many motives of envy, greed, resentment and longing.

Joan Hickson is a marvel as Jane Marple. Many have played the character, usually with distinction, but Hickson has set the bar extremely high. As good as the others have been and are, she still is the best. Lending great support in these three movies are a wide range of superior British actors. In addition to John Castle, some others who show up in the three stories include such favorites as Renee Asherson, Joan Sims, Moray Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Ursula Howells, Peter Davison, Joyce Carey and so many more.

Each mystery runs about 2 hours and 40 minutes. The DVD transfers could have been better; they have the quality of a mid-range VHS tape, not good but not too bad. Regardless of the quality, if you enjoy mysteries with complex plots, fine acting, good manners and featuring a relentless solver of murders, these Miss Marple movies are the real thing.

"There she sits: an elderly spinster; sweet, placid ..........2006-09-08

... so you'd think," retired Scotland Yard chief Sir Henry Clithering (Raymond Francis) says when describing St. Mary Mead's best-known inhabitant to his friend, wealthy paraplegic Conway Jefferson in the first adaptation of a Miss Marple mystery, "The Body in the Library." "Yet," Sir Henry continues, "her mind has plumbed the depths of human iniquity, and taken all in a day's work." And Vicar Clement, the narrator of Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple story, 1930's "Murder at the Vicarage," couldn't agree more: "Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner - Miss Wetherby is a mixture of vinegar and gush. Of the two Miss Marple is the more dangerous," he observes on one occasion.

The BBC's 1980s adaptations of Christie's twelve Miss Marple novels quickly established Joan Hickson as the quintessential Jane Marple, even in the view of the grandmother (or rather, grand-aunt) of all village sleuths and "noticing kinds of persons"'s creator, Dame Agatha herself. (After seeing Hickson in an adaptation of her "Appointment With Death," as early as 1946 Christie reportedly sent her a note expressing the hope she would "play my dear Miss Marple.") Prior versions, partly involving rather high-octane casts, had seen as Miss Marple, inter alia, Angela Lansbury and Margaret Rutherford, but had been less faithful to Christie's books. While Lansbury holds her own fairly well when compared to the character's literary original in 1980's "Hollywood does Christie" adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd" (and that movie's ageing actresses' showdown featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak is a delight to watch) the four movies starring Rutherford are only loosely based on Christie's books: Dame Margaret's Miss Marple, although itself likewise a splendid performance, has about as much to do with Agatha Christie's demure, seemingly scatterbrained village sleuth as Big Ben does with the English countryside, and of the scripts, only "Murder, She Said" is an adaptation of a Miss Marple mystery ("4:50 From Paddington"), whereas two of the others -- "Murder at the Gallop" and "Murder Most Foul" -- are actually Hercule Poirot stories ("After the Funeral" and "Mrs. McGinty's Dead," respectively), and "Murder Ahoy" is based on a completely independent screenplay.

Following the rule that ever since Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Lestrade every great private detective needs a policeman he can outwit, the creators of the BBC series inserted the character of Milchester C.I.D.'s Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) into almost all storylines -- hardly in keeping with the literary originals, which are set over a period of more than 30 years and thus, exceed the career span of a policeman already advanced on his professional path at the time of his first encounter with Miss Marple; even if the BBC's Slack is promoted from D.I. in "The Body in the Library" (where he really does appear) to Superintendent in the adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd" (where Miss Marple is actually only joined by Inspector Craddock, not also by Slack). Yet, Hickson's and Horovitch's face-offs are a fun addition; and one is almost ready to pity Slack, who hardly ever gets a foot down vis-a-vis Miss Marple's quick rejoinders and, in the words of Sir Henry Clithering, "wonderful gift to state the obvious" ... and whose "good old-fashioned policework" is found to fall short, again and again, in comparison with Miss Marple's ever-unfailing "village parallels," those seemingly innocuous incidents of village life making up the sum of her knowledge of human nature, to which she routinely turns in unmasking even the cleverest killer.

This set contains the region 1 versions of the BBC's first three adaptations starring Joan Hickson:

"The Body in the Library" (written 1942, BBC 1984): In response to a friend's request, Christie makes a mysterious dead platinum blonde appear in the library of St. Mary Mead squire Colonel Bantry and his wife Dolly, Miss Marple's friend. (The horror! The scandal!) The murderer's trail leads from the Bantrys' Gossington Hall estate to nearby seaside resort Danemouth, when the dead girl is identified as a show dancer who used to work at one of the resort's luxury hotels. But as Mrs. Bantry will come to observe to her surprise in the end, "it all boils down to fingernail clippings and Mozart" ...

"A Murder Is Announced" (written 1950, BBC 1985): It was supposed to be "just a silly joke," that startling anonymous advertisement in Chipping Cleghorn's village gazette -- "A murder is announced and will take place Friday, October the 5th, at Little Paddocks, at 7PM." But then a murder really does occur, and the person found lying dead is the ad's author himself. In determining his connection to Little Paddocks's owner Ms. Blacklog -- his failed holdup's apparent target -- Miss Marple and Inspector Craddock (John Castle) ponder the effects of the post-WWII changes of British village society ... and the vital clue is finally provided by a remarkable cat named Delilah.

"A Pocket Full of Rye" (written 1953, BBC also 1985): A murderer uses an old nursery rhyme in a ghastly game with rich tyrannical Rex Fortescue and his family which soon has police and press speculate about black magic. Miss Marple, however, instantly zeroes in on the nursery rhyme, and finding that she has come too late to save the life of her erstwhile protege, the Fortescues' clumsy, naive maid Gladys, she does not rest until she has found the murderer, whose motive is, alas, nothing but "greed -- one knows that, naturally ..."

The series's remaining episodes (available in a variety of other sets):

"Murder at the Vicarage" (written 1930, BBC 1986; Christie's first Marple story)
"The Moving Finger" (written 1942, BBC 1985)
"They Do It with Mirrors" (written 1952, BBC 1991)
"4:50 From Paddington" (written 1957, BBC 1987; a/k/a "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!")
"The Mirror Crack'd" (written 1962, BBC 1992; title taken from Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott")
"At Bertram's Hotel" (written 1965; BBC 1987)
"A Caribbean Mystery" (written 1965, BBC 1989)
"Nemesis" (written 1971, BBC 1987; sequel to the above)
"Sleeping Murder" (written 1976, BBC 1987; Christie's last Miss Marple mystery)

A great DVD collection!.......2006-02-02

Every once in a while, an actor comes along who not only plays the role of Sherlock Holmes, but actually redefines the role. Well, this has now happened with Agatha Christie's detective, Miss Marple! In 1984, veteran actress Joan Hickson (1906-98) was tapped to play Miss Marple, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This is a great DVD collection, containing three of the excellent Joan Hickson/Miss Marple episodes, each of which is a great small-screen adaptation of Agatha Christie's excellent book of the same name. If you are a fan of great mysteries, then this is for you. Heck, even if you just like high-quality British drama, then you will love these movies. I love this DVD set, and give it my highest recommendations!

The three episodes are:
The Body in the Library - Episode #1, 1984 - When the body of a murdered young woman is found in their library, the Bantry's bring in their old friend, Jane Marple. There's a mystery within a mystery here: who is the murdered girl, and how did she get from where she was last seen to the Bantry's library?

A Murder is Announced - Episode #2, 1985 - When a personal item in the Chipping Cleghorne Gazette invites people to a murder at the home of Miss Blacklock, they show up to be part of a real murder! The police are baffled as to what happened and why, and that leaves only one person who can unravel this mystery - Miss Jane Marple!

A Pocketful of Rye - Episode #3, 1985 - When a rich man dies under very mysterious circumstances, Miss Marple quickly realizes that more murders are sure to follow. This is a very deep mystery, and only Jane Marple can find out what is really going on and why!

By the way, as an added bonus, this set contains "Crime Does Pay," a 1990 episode of the British television show Western Approach. On September 15, 1890, the city of Torquay threw a celebration of the 100th birthday of their favorite citizen, the late Agatha Christie. This show is an interesting salute to Dame Agatha, and focuses on her life, her work, and her legacy.

The BBC TV Aunt Jane's turned into movies........2005-04-17

"Body in the Library"

Mrs. Dolly Bantry (Gwen Watford) tries to inform her husband of the reported body and is accused of imagining the report due to reading trashy books in bead at night. As usual Jane is always in the right place to view the potential suspects. Clues are everywhere yet who would mix body's and books?
Speaking about night I would not start this film to late, as it seems to go on forever at 151 minutes. As it was a made for TV (1984), I suspect that this movie is a composite of a series. And there are places where it takes leaps to different situations with out any transition. You can guess the plot in general but the details are surprising. It is wrapped up so quickly that you will need to run the ending a few times to put it all in perspective

"A Murder is Announced"

A man dies in Chipping Kleghorn under mysterious circumstances and suddenly Aunt Jane is coming to stay. As with most Agatha Christie's movies, everybody and nobody could have done it. Miss Jane Marple is the catalyst that helps Inspector Craddock (John Castle) and others to view the situation differently and extrapolate the "who" that done it.
It is interesting that the inspector in some movies, is related to Jane and in other movies not. Inspector Craddock here is interesting as he is polite and tolerant of the people he is interrogating.
It is fun to try and match the real names of the actors with the part that they are playing. Would you suspect that Hannah is (Elaine Ives-Cameron)? Or that Miss Hinchcliffe is (Paola Dionisotti)?
Anyway keep your eyes open, as there is not a wasted movement or word in this movie.

"A Pocket Full of Rye"

Rex Fortescue is out of character as he arrives at is office. You immediately know something is wrong because this is England and Rex has ordered his tea much too early. Yep mean old nasty Rex is found dead. Thorough detectives have determined that there was some mysterious grain in his pocket. If you remember the nursery rime you can follow the story. So how does Jane become involved? She trained the maid and is afraid for her safety. Naturally at several places in the mystery Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) points out the obvious to Det. Sergeant Hay (Jon Glover) who realizes and corrects the error of not listening to her.
There is only one repugnant scene where you have to watch Rex eat. Other than that it is a thoroughly enjoyable mystery.

Miss Marple - The Body In The Library [1984]

Average customer rating:

A great tape
These BBC films are wonderful...
"There she sits: an elderly spinster; sweet, placid ...
Miss Marple - The Body In The Library
Could this happen here?

Miss Marple - The Body In The Library [1984]
Starring: Joan Hickson , Gwen Watford , Moray Watson , Valentine Dyall , and Karin Foley
Director: Silvio Narizzano
Manufacturer: Meridian Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All Drama | Drama | Categories | DVD | Video

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Miss Marple | Crime, Thrillers & Mystery | Categories | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00004RCPN
Release Date: 2000-03-06

Amazon.co.uk Review

The suspense of Miss Marple: The Body in the Library isn't the edge-of-your-seat variety; it's simply a perplexing puzzle that keeps niggling at the back of your mind. Just as one piece of the puzzle falls into place, another gap opens up, thanks to one of Agatha Christie's most intricate plots. Considering what a long film this is (150 minutes, lengthier than most Christie adaptations), it's impressive how tightly the mystery grips the viewer's attention. And not a second of Joan Hickson's marvellous performance as Miss Marple should be missed (the other performances, alas, fall short, except for Gwen Watford as Dolly Bantry, in whose library the body is found). To people meeting her for the first time, Jane Marple appears to be a sweet old dear, whose comments on the murder investigation are more likely to involve an obscure recollection of a frog jumping out of someone's coat than to have any direct bearing on the case. But as Christie fans know, beneath that dithery exterior lies one of the shrewdest minds in England. Hickson's understated portrayal reveals the humour in her character without ever making a mockery of Miss Marple and the results are delightful to watch. --Larisa Lomacky Moore, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

A great tape.......2006-01-09

When the body of a murdered young woman is found in their library, the Bantry's bring in their old friend, Jane Marple (played by Joan Hickson). There's a mystery within a mystery here: who is the murdered girl, and how did she get from where she was last seen to the Bantry's library? There are suspects galore, but only one person can possible get to the truth - Miss Marple! [Color, released in 1984, with a running time of 2:31.]

This is a great tape, and a great small-screen adaptation of Agatha Christie's excellent book. If you are a fan of great mysteries, then this is for you. Heck, even if you just like high-quality British drama, then you will love this movie. I love this movie, and give it my highest recommendations!

These BBC films are wonderful..........2005-01-30

If you want to view a representation of the Christie character that is not only utterly faithful to the written form but also intensely engaging, then these films are for you.
The late Joan Hickson was certainly the best Marple to date, on screen or stage, too many other actresses have relied on the dotty, eccentric old dear routine to hide the stunning and ruthless accuracy of Marple in her crime detection.
Not Hickson however, acute, all knowing and yet sedate, polite and gentile.
All the sharp, cunning, point blank accuracy of Hercule Poirot with not a sniff of his bumptious, boostfulness.
Reading both sets of novels I have always felt this was perhaps Christie's little pop at the points by which
"we English" then saw ourselves as ever so slightly more refined and superior to our European counterparts, particularly shortly following WW2, when these films are set.
Hickson does convey the incredulous notion of a sweet and seemingly "elsewhere", old dear who silently scrutanises facts and weaves together events so as to let not one chink of light through her theory.
I have much admired Geraldine McKewan's recent attempts to revamp and update the role but I fear these modern times do not allow us to expect to find the genius in inobvious places and, perhaps becuase the 2000's audience needs to instantly understand it's heroine, this world can no longer wait after all! McKewan is dotty, eccentric and therefore obvoiusly brilliant.
Hickson played the superior role, the genius hidden in the gentile is a far more engaging and thought provoking process. It was her greatest role, these films show you that in abundance, why she was passed over for a BAFTA is hard to fathom. But then just maybe she preferred to do her knitting and sit predicticting the outcome of the winner's career, future and artistic downfalls. I know she wasn't really Marple but she is so good it is hard to suspend that belief!

"There she sits: an elderly spinster; sweet, placid ..........2004-12-11

... so you'd think," retired Scotland Yard chief Sir Henry Clithering (Raymond Francis) says when describing Miss Marple to his friend, paraplegic wealthy Conway Jefferson (Andrew Cruickshank). "Yet," he continues, "her mind has plummed the depths of human iniquity, and taken all in a day's work." And Vicar Clement, the narrator of Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple story, 1930's "Murder at the Vicarage," couldn't agree more: "Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner - Miss Wetherby is a mixture of vinegar and gush. Of the two Miss Marple is the more dangerous," he observes on one occasion.

So, while Milchester C.I.D.'s Inspector Slack (David Horovitch), in charge of the investigation into the death of the platinum blonde whose body has mysteriously appeared in the library of Colonel Bantry (Moray Watson), squire of the village of St. Mary Mead, is still hot on the pursuit of the wrong suspect(s), Miss Marple - called in by her friend Dolly Bantry (Gwen Watford), the Colonel's wife - has already found the solution; relying on her ever-unfailing "village parallels," those seemingly innocuous incidents of village life making up the sum of her knowledge of human nature, to which she routinely turns in unmasking even the cleverest killer.

The BBC's 1980s adaptations of Christie's twelve Miss Marple novels quickly established Joan Hickson as the quintessential Jane Marple, even in the view of the grandmother (or rather, grand-aunt) of all village sleuths and "noticing kinds of persons"'s creator, Dame Agatha herself. (After seeing Hickson in an adaptation of her "Appointment With Death," as early as 1946 Christie reportedly sent her a note expressing the hope she would "play my dear Miss Marple.") Prior versions, partly involving rather high-octane casts, had seen as Miss Marple, inter alia, Angela Lansbury and Margaret Rutherford, but had been less faithful to Christie's books. While Lansbury holds her own fairly well when compared to the character's literary original in 1980's "Hollywood does Christie" adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd" (and that movie's ageing actresses' showdown featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak is a delight to watch) the four movies starring Rutherford are only loosely based on Christie's books: Dame Margaret's Miss Marple, although itself likewise a splendid performance, has about as much to do with Agatha Christie's demure, seemingly scatterbrained village sleuth as Big Ben does with the English countryside, and of the scripts, only "Murder, She Said" is an adaptation of a Miss Marple mystery ("4:50 From Paddington"), whereas two of the others - "Murder at the Gallop" and "Murder Most Foul" - are actually Hercule Poirot stories ("After the Funeral" and "Mrs. McGinty's Dead," respectively), and "Murder Ahoy" is based on a completely independent screenplay.

"The Body in the Library" was Christie's second novel-length Miss Marple mystery, written twelve years after "The Murder at the Vicarage" and following two short story collections featuring St. Mary Mead's elderly spinster, "The Thirteen Problems" (1932, a/k/a "The Tuesday Club Murders") and "The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories" (1939). The mysterious dead blonde's appearance at the story's very beginning was Christie's response to a friend's request for a dead body in her next novel's first chapter. In the BBC productions, this was the first Miss Marple mystery to air (in three installments in 1984), followed a year later by the likewise multiple-episode "A Pocket Full of Rye" and "A Murder Is Announced," as well as the movie-length "The Moving Finger." Only in 1986, the BBC followed up with a movie-length adaptation of "The Murder at the Vicarage." The last of the twelve features, "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side," dates from 1992.

Following the rule that ever since Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Lestrade every great private detective needs a policeman he can outwit, the creators of the BBC series inserted the character of Inspector Slack into almost all storylines - hardly in keeping with the literary originals, which are set over a period of more than 30 years and thus, exceed the career span of a policeman already advanced on his professional path at the time of his first encounter with Miss Marple; even if the BBC's Slack is promoted from D.I. in "The Body in the Library" (where he really does appear) to Superintendent in "The Mirror Crack'd." Yet, Hickson's and Horovitch's face-offs are a fun addition; and one is almost ready to pity Slack, who hardly ever gets a foot down vis-a-vis Miss Marple's quick rejoinders and, in the words of Sir Henry Clithering, "wonderful gift to state the obvious."

From the library of the Bantrys' Gossington Hall estate, the present mystery's trail leads to the nearby seaside resort of Danemouth, where the dead girl - identified by her cousin Josie Turner (played by Sting's wife Trudie Styler) as one Ruby Keene - had worked as a show dancer at a large luxury hotel. In classic Christie fashion, the cast of suspects includes everybody from rich Mr. Jefferson's son in law Mark Gaskell (Keith Drinkel) and daughter in law Adelaide (Ciaran Madden), the spouses of Jefferson's deceased children - who have taken the place of their dead partners in the rich old man's life, and have every reason to resent upstartish Ruby for whirling herself into his favor, to the point of his decision to adopt her and settle a large sum of money on her in his testament - to shallow tennis pro and dance instructor Raymond Starr (Jess Conrad), who has hopes of his own regarding Adelaide Jefferson, as well as flamboyant Basil Blake (Anthony Smee), whose extravagant lifestyle and connections to the movie world in themselves provide ample grounds for a close look at him. But while Inspector Slack insists that the case will be solved by "good old-fashioned police work," Miss Marple's "village parallels" and her attention to such things as the dead girl's fingernails prove uncannily superior - and allow her to connect this case to the disappearance of another young woman, an incident offhand dismissed as unconnected by Slack.

Miss Marple - The Body In The Library.......2003-10-30

As always the attention to detail of the period is excellent Joan Hickson is superb as Miss Marple

Could this happen here?.......2002-10-20

Mrs. Dolly Bantry (Gwen Watford) tries to inform her husband of the reported body and is accused of imagining the report due to reading trashy books in bead at night. As usual Jane is always in the right place to view the potential suspects. Clues are everywhere yet who would mix body's and books?
Speaking about night I would not start this film to late, as it seems to go on forever at 151 minutes. As it was a made for TV (1984), I suspect that this video is a composite of a series. And there are places where it takes leaps to different situations with out any transition. You can guess the plot in general but the details are surprising. It is wrapped up so quickly that you will need to run the ending a few times to put it all in perspective

UK DVD:

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