I've seen all the Miss Marple screenings (and read all the books), and the only actress to really perfect the character was the magnificent Joan Hickson, and her efforts are all still readily available, and repeated on TV quite regularly.
Why this new series of "Marple" was ever made in the first place is quite beyond me. They could then muck those up to their hearts' content. If producers and directors think they can do better, they should write their own novels. It did nothing for the unnecessary enhancement of Agatha Christie's reputation as the "Queen of the Whodunnits". The denouement change of "The Body in the Library" was original to say the least, but ridiculous, and quite pointless. I suspect Hickson's Marple would have viewed this whole sorry enterprise and said 'yes, well. and let's just say that pedals a movie stereotype I thought we'd finally moved away from. This latest version really offers nothing new, other than the 'twist' at the end. Too often British actors confuse the crafts of stage and film acting, so here we have moods, thoughts and reactions being telegraphed rather than suggested. 2004's The Body In The Library is alive with theatrical over-acting of the worst kind, and all the 'star' turns (Callow, Davenport, Walliams, sadly even Lumley) simply bury McEwan's plain Jane under a thick layer of over-playing. One of the joys of the BBC series was the ensemble work within each show, the characterisations and restraint displayed by each cast member, and Hickson being well served by each script. However, after the BBC's quite brilliant series from the 1980's, in which Joan Hickson used economy and subtlety to create a brilliant Marple, what more could be added? This new interpretation, with McEwan taking up the baton, fails where Hickson's succeeded. In theory there is nothing wrong with revisiting classic Christie stories and characters - Poirot has been essayed a number of times (Finney, Ustinov, Suchet), and over the years we've had various spins on Miss Marple, ranging from Margaret Rutherford in the early 1960's to June Whitfield on BBC Radio.
0 kommentar(er)
