Marple: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (2009) (TV)

Director:

Nicholas Renton

Writers:

Patrick Barlow (screenplay)
Agatha Christie (novel)

Release Date:

26 July 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

While visiting her friend Marjorie Attfield, Miss Marple learns that her son Bobby had recently found a body...

Plot Keywords:

Apostrophe In Title | Female Detective | Spinster | Punctuation In Title | Question In Title

Cast

Julia McKenzie	...	Miss Marple
Sean Biggerstaff	...	Bobby Attfield
David Buchanan	...	John Carstairs
Siwan Morris	...	Florrie
Helen Lederer	...	Marjorie Attfield
Georgia Moffett	...	Frankie Derwent
Samantha Bond	...	Sylvia Savage
Richard Briers	...	Wilson
Freddie Fox	...	Tom Savage
Rik Mayall	...	Alec Nicholson
Hannah Murray	...	Dorothy Savage
Rafe Spall	...	Roger Bassington
Natalie Dormer	...	Moira Nicholson
Warren Clarke	...	Commander Peters
Mark Williams	...	Claud Evans

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie: Marple - Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Australia)

Runtime:

USA:82 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG

Quotes:

Florrie: That's all you can ask. Someone who treats you right. Like there are diamonds on your soul.

Movie Connections:

Version of Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1980) (TV)

Take Dame Agatha's name off the credits!!

Yet another terrible "Marple" adaptation of a non-Marple/Christie novel. Except that, despite the producers' insistence that it's based on Dame Agatha's novel, it ain't based on Dame Agatha's novel. They hadn't even the decency to tone down the words "based on" to perhaps "as suggested by but nothing like", as once again their hack writers have been encouraged to get busy with the hatchet. If they want to carve up Agatha Christie's great plots into sub-standard ones because they haven't the intelligence to think up their own original plots, that's OK by me, but please...find new names for the characters, and new titles for both the series and the episodes within it...and keep Dame Agatha's name off the credits!!

I'm all for exploring characters and making improvements in any plot, but considering that Agatha Christie books (alongside the Holy Bible and the works of William Shakespeare) are the best sellers of all time, and the most ever translated works worldwide, it would seem to me that her original characters and plots don't need either exploration or "improvement". The arrogance of the producers and screenwriters of this series in taking on such a futile and totally unnecessary task astounds me!

I can't for one moment imagine that Agatha Christie would approve of this adaptation, nor indeed most other offerings in this dreadful "Marple" series. Neither can I understand those in authority of her estate approving it, so one has to wonder how and why it has been allowed to be screened under her name. Surely the estate can't be that hard up for a dollar or two? So why allow Dame Agatha's genius to be insulted and belittled in this way?

The magic of Christie's writing is the simplicity and ease in which she weaved complicated plots with believable characters, which were always solved with logical denouements, not as in these "Marple" adaptations where most plots have been turned into chaos with illogical denouements, and with characters turned into cardboard cutouts, by inferior writers and producers who think they know better than she did.

Right from "reel one" there are numerous holes in this implausible new plot, and the actors seem to sleepwalk throughout an utterly tedious script. To combat the tedium however, for the male viewers there is the beautiful Georgia Moffett to drool over, and Sean Biggerstaff and Rafe Spall are suppled for the female viewers. Apart from that there's very little going for this fiasco. One is thankful that the Hickson/Marple adaptations have been preserved, for both posterity and for the sanity of true Christie fans.