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Previous Hickson, McEwan, or McKenzie? Next marple

Post title: Joan Hickson

hobbit on 23 Sep 2008 at 4:58 p.m. GMT

I'd like to express my personal pleasure at the new photos of JH that have been added to the site. The old site didn't even have a single shot of her, and it's nice to see two on the new one. This is the offical AC site after all - and JH is, to many, the official Miss Marple!

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aznm on 17 Aug 2009 at 12:01 a.m. GMT

I agree with others. Joan Hickson is THE Miss Marple. The others are just imitations.

Mr_Satterthwaite on 22 Feb 2009 at 4:23 p.m. GMT

Yes, Joan Hickson. I remember watching her Miss Marple as a child. Loved it. I have only caught a few glimpses of 'Marple'. It is a bit too 'modern' for Miss Marple if that is not a contradiction.

Tommy_A_Jones on 07 Feb 2009 at 1:30 p.m. GMT

I wonder where Julia McKenzie will come in people's lists? I suppose it is a matter of taste I would put Geraldine MKewan after Joan Hickson, Margaret Rutherford and Angela Landesbury and Helen Hayes and if we are including her June Whitfield. I have never seen Barbara Mullen, Gracie Fields or Dulcie Gray in the role but I think Dulcie Gray and Barbara Mullen have just played her for the Stage

tonymetzger on 04 Jan 2009 at 1:30 a.m. GMT

I too prefer Miss Hickson to Miss McEwan

squatty on 27 Dec 2008 at 5:25 p.m. GMT

I watched both the JH and the GM versions of Sleeping Murder the other day and for me, there is absolutely no comparison. The JH version was faithful to the novel and had some genuine scary moments. The GM version with the ludicrous acting company is an insult to AC. I might stage my own private protest on New Years Day and watch my JH version of Nemesis whilst the GM version is aired. I dont think I can handle the Bradbury Scotts sisters being turned into nuns.

moreteavicar on 27 Dec 2008 at 3:14 p.m. GMT

I'll give Julia McKenzie a go, but have long since given up on Geraldine McEwan. I have not quite recovered from the unexpected lesbianism in The Body in the Library! (could anyone else hear Agatha spinning in her grave at that point? Or do I just need to get new speakers for my telly?) Joan Hickson is fairly unbeatable, though. Frail, timid, stern, serious, with a bit of a naughty gleam in her eye. I watched her in The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side the other day: the final sequence has Miss M and some villagers sitting in her garden, and the great lady's final line is "More tea vicar?". Perfection. Absolute bliss.

Tommy_A_Jones on 09 Dec 2008 at 4:30 p.m. GMT

We in Britain haven't seen Pocketful of Rye yet, but I loved Julia Mckenzie in Fresh Fields and French Fields (Althougfh I didn't enjoy the latter quite so much) and I think she is a wonderful Actress so I will probably like her as Miss Marple, Although I don't approve of Miss Marple being in Adapts that she shouldn't be in having Ms McKenzie appear in books I don't like so much might make me think differently about them so I might actually like Murder is Easy.

go_leafs_nation on 07 Dec 2008 at 10:22 p.m. GMT

I'm beginning to think Julia Mackenzie may give Joan Hickson a run for her money as MM. She was brilliant in "A Pocket Full of Rye".

Marc_Anton on 07 Dec 2008 at 2:21 p.m. GMT

I don't think the version of A Murder is Announced with Gracie Fields was ever recorded, it was just aired in 1956 but not kept for for eternity on any medium. Anyway, it lasted only one hour so I don't think it could have been a very faithful version of a very complicated book. I never even saw a photo of it, nor one of Fields in the character of Miss Marple or the rest of the cast. I am curious though since Roger Moore was in it too as Patrick Simmons and Jessica Tandy as Letitia Blacklock. Ah well....we will never know. Perhaps better this way, some of those early TV-dramas can be pretty bad and dated.

Dazzy on 06 Dec 2008 at 11:11 p.m. GMT

detectivepauljohn
Joan Hickson is the Miss marple forever!

I totally agree with you. You will not get another Mis Marple like her.

Joan Hickson was born to play Miss Marple.

R.I.P. (5th August 1906 - 17th October 1998)

Tommy_A_Jones on 06 Dec 2008 at 1:28 p.m. GMT

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Gracie Fields Playing Miss Marple? I would love to have one, also It is a shame Angela Landesbury only plaqyed her once, and it is a pity Matthew Pritchard isn't a stickler for having trhe adasptations how they should be, He would have to have sanctioned the way they were being done for them to be donne, Although even the BBC never did the shoryt stories they didn't have the stupid idea of putting Miss Marple in Books she doesn't appear in.

Jemma on 14 Nov 2008 at 10 a.m. GMT

You're right. Though technically Gracie Fields was the first Miss Marple on screen. She was in a TV adaptation of A Murder is Announced back in 1956.

go_leafs_nation on 14 Nov 2008 at 12:45 a.m. GMT

Wasn't she MM on television? I was certain Ruhterford was the first to portray her on the big screen.

Jemma on 13 Nov 2008 at 5:21 p.m. GMT

Actually it was Gracie Fields!

go_leafs_nation on 13 Nov 2008 at 11:14 a.m. GMT

Sorry if I seem somewhat of a stickler, but JH was NOT the first Miss Marple on screen. Margaret Rutherford played her in 4 movies.

AndThenThereWasTim on 12 Nov 2008 at 7:14 p.m. GMT

She is the first and the most famous of all the Miss Marples

go_leafs_nation on 03 Nov 2008 at 1:35 a.m. GMT

I was thinking of it for a long time, and yes, that's the conclusion I came up with. Look at the last "faithful" season of Poirot (Death on the Nile and the lot): it changed the tone by removing Hastings, Japp, and Lemon (and thus got on par with the books), but took only comparatively minor liberties. Then, in the next season, we got "Cards on the Table" and the lot. It's too massive a change.

squatty on 02 Nov 2008 at 5:55 p.m. GMT

Thats really interesting goleafs - I hadn't thought of that. I thought her grandson had most control over her estate but it certainly seems more than a coincidence

go_leafs_nation on 02 Nov 2008 at 1 p.m. GMT

Does anyone notice a trend? The stories started getting VEEERY unfaifthful (i.e. complete rewrites) only after AC's daughter died in 2004. Curious...

squatty on 02 Nov 2008 at 11:52 a.m. GMT

The Hickson series were obvously produced by people who liked and respected AC's work; the attention to detail is astonishing at times. There have been several times whilst watching the GM versions that I have suspected the producers are more interested in their own ego than respecting the original source material.

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