Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2006) (TV)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Peter Medak

Writers:

Stewart Harcourt (screenplay) and
Agatha Christie (novel)

Release Date:

19 February 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Miss Marple joins forces with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to find the murderer of Tommy's Aunt Ada.

Plot Keywords:

Miss Marple | Tommy And Tuppence | Vicar | Murder | Syringe

Cast

Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Jane Marple
Chloe Pennington	...	Young Hannah
Oliver Jordan	...	Young Ethan
Anthony Andrews	...	Tommy Beresford
Greta Scacchi	...	Tuppence Beresford
Clare Holman	...	Miss Packard
Miriam Karlin	...	Marjorie Moody
June Whitfield	...	Mrs. Lancaster
Claire Bloom	...	Aunt Ada
Steven Berkoff	...	Freddie Eccles
Patrick Barlow	...	Mr. Timothy
O.T. Fagbenle	...	Chris Murphy (as O-T Fagbenle)
Jody Halse	...	Amos Perry
Josie Lawrence	...	Hannah Beresford
Michael Maloney	...	Dr. Joshua Waters

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie - Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Australia) (DVD title)

Runtime:

USA:102 min | Brazil:93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

Agatha Christie

Trivia:

Miss Marple does not appear in Agatha Christie's original novel, which was an adventure featuring her other sleuths, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. In order to make the story part of the Marple series, the time period was moved from post-war to sometime near the end of the war. This conveniently places Tommy still in the military intelligence service abroad, and his part of the story was re-written for Miss Marple.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: This episode is set somewhere in the late 40s, early 50s (Polo mints were first made in 1948). Miss Marple requests the taxi driver to take them to "the train station". The expression "train station" has only been in common use in the last few years, it's certain Miss Marple would have said "railway station".

Quotes:

Tommy Beresford: [Tuppence asks Tommy to drive so she can continue reading her copy of Macbeth. Tommy chuckles in response] I was in Macbeth at my prep school. "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day."
Tuppence Beresford: [gets in car on passenger side] I heard you were marvelous.
Tommy Beresford: Who from?
Tuppence Beresford: You.
Tommy Beresford: Hmm.
[gets in car and starts engine]
Tommy Beresford: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

Movie Connections:

Version of Mon petit doigt m'a dit... (2005)

Shockingly wrong on so many levels

Let's start off by admitting I do not like McEwan as Marple. I do not see it. -- anymore than I saw Rutherford as the famed detective.

HOWEVER, I have embraced her.

Welcomed the series and enjoyed most of them. I got my fix. That is until a golden rule was broken with this piece of uck.

This is not a Marple story -- it is a part of a greater tales, that of my two favorite characters penned by Mystery Maven Christie, Tommy and Tuppence. In five novels (one that's a group of well written short stories) we are given a birds eye view into their lives -- entirely. I mean from 19 to 70. How they meet, when they married, had twins, Detective agency, government involvement and is the stuff that life is made of.

The original story has been "frankensteined". It is not Marple, it is not the Beresfords and Christie's beautiful tale is lost.

A pox on the head of the man or woman who came up with this stupid exploitive idea. Nothing is note worthy in this failed production. It's as if all those involved were aware of the travesty being committed and therefore their jobs and how well they did them suffered from embarrassment.

A pox, I say!!!