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Original poster

Any Agatha Christie fans about?

244 replies

wineoclockthanks · 16/12/2019 19:57

I read them all avidly about 40 years ago and am rediscovering them via Charity shops atm.

One of my favourites was about a group of people living in a shared house, possibly a student house and there were letters written in green ink. I've had a google but can't find the name of the book. Any ideas please?

No spoilers please because I can only remember the murderer in a few and don't want to spoil the rest.

OP posts:
WeshMaGueule · 18/12/2019 20:30

Unreliable narrators have been around for a lot longer than the 20th century btw!

hels71 · 18/12/2019 20:59

Love AC. Watching David Suchet now in the Spanish Chest. Get nightmares from And Then There Were None and also Hercule Poirots Christmas. F2f has just started watching Poirot and have got her some short stories for Christmas.

I also love the Peter Wimsey books and my latest fave detective is Phryne Fisher

soupforbrains · 18/12/2019 21:16

@hels71 oh yes I love a bit of Phryne Fisher.

shortsaint · 18/12/2019 21:26

You're making me want to read them again. I devoured them all from the library when I was about 13.

No one has mentioned 4.50 from Paddington which I remember.

I loved that TV Poirot last year which was brought up to date and recalled his early life. Some nice asides about welcoming refugees.

There's a great film called Agatha withVanessa Redgrave about her real life disappearance.

Natsku · 18/12/2019 21:33

4:50 From Paddington was the first one I read, one of the few English language books in the library I was at so I picked it up and became a firm fan

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 18/12/2019 21:59

'The Mirror Crack'd' is a good one IMO, ditto Sleeping Murder. But I've enjoyed them all.

Re TV versions, I really can't bear the newer ITV Miss Marple versions -mucked about and 'sexed up' where they possibly can.

The older versions with Joan Hickson - who incidentally was Christie's own choice for Miss Marple - are IMO incomparably better.

In particular the Hickson version of Sleeping Murder is most wonderfully creepy!

The newer ITV version lost that aspect completely and totally messed it up.

tobee · 18/12/2019 22:09

I think my first Agatha Christie adaptation I saw was either Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express (the old Hollywood glamour) or Margaret Rutherford Murder She Said based on 4.50 From Paddington. Rutherford was nothing like Miss Marple and she did everything, basically being 3 of the characters in one. But I found it very scary when young. Family members being bumped off.

StarbucksSmarterSister · 19/12/2019 01:20

On the continuing subject of Christie adaptations there have been some shockers over the years. Some of the American Helen Hayes one!

Helen Hayes was in an adaptation of Murder is Easy, with Bill Bixby. I loved it, but maybe that's because I loved Bill Bixby.

ilovesooty · 19/12/2019 02:55

No one has mentioned "Towards Zero" which I love. Psychologically fascinating.

ShatnersWig · 19/12/2019 08:13

The BBC Hickson Miss Marples are perfection. A few years ago they digitally remastered them and they look stunning - but you can only buy them from the US! Ridiculous. The scripts and castings are faultless and where changes are made to the less well structured books, you always feel they are very sympathetic and what Christie "might" have done in her sharper days. They never did the whole scale rewriting that the ITV ones did or the more recent BBC adaptations which, And Then There Were None excepted, have been dire.

The Helen Hayes updated two Miss Marples are, well, typical TV movies. Although like a PP I quite enjoyed the TV Murder is Easy - yes, updated, but they didn't mess around too much and there was some splendid casting (Timothy West and Olivia DeHavilland were superb).

Margaret Rutherford films are thoroughly enjoyable but on their own account - forget they are Christie (which the fourth one isn't of course, but wholly original).

No one comes close to Hickson but I rather liked the film version of The Mirror Crack'd with Angela Lansbury. Hickson is very definitely the Marple of the later, fluffier books, but Lansbury is very definitely the Marple of Murder at the Vicarage and Body in the Library where the character is much more upright Edwardian than fluffy. Edward Fox as Inspector Craddock is a delight and Elizabeth Taylor was rather good as Marina.

For sheer delight on a Sunday afternoon with tea and hot crumpets though, while Suchet is the better Poirot, Ustinov's Death on the Nile or Evil Under the Sun are perfect entertainment.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/12/2019 08:18

I've often thought of how she must have been on a train one night - in the days of closed compartments - seen another train pass close by, the compartments all lit up, and thought,
What if.....?

IJustWantToWearDungarees · 19/12/2019 08:52

Completely agree that Joan Hickson is THE Marple. Just a brilliant portrayal. And the theme music! Wonderful. There's a bit in one of them (A Pocket Full of Rye, maybe?) where someone gets murdered while hanging out the washing. It's absolutely terrifying. And her version of At Bertram's Hotel is deliciously creepy.

IJustWantToWearDungarees · 19/12/2019 08:53

I now want to go and watch all the Hickson Marples! Are they on Netflix or anywhere?

PrivateSpidey · 19/12/2019 09:23

The Joan Hickson Marples are quite often on the Alibi channel dungarees, if you have access to that? Some have been on v recently so they might still be showing...

Dowser · 19/12/2019 09:29

I’m thinking of going to see the mousetrap..no spoilers please
Will I enjoy it

Dowser · 19/12/2019 09:34

Crumpets? With butter and cheese?
Those were the days..now gf and df ...and vegan cheese ..just doesn’t do it for me.
Sounds like heaven ..with a good telly session
( which is just what we missed on holiday for the last two weeks)

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 19/12/2019 09:47

Dungarees, I think that would be in A Pocketful of Rye, given the nursery rhyme, but there's also a scene like that in A Murder Is Announced. She must have had it in for washing-hanger-outers! Grin

Squigean · 19/12/2019 10:06

Hmmm, thought I'd written a post earlier but seems I didnt actually post it!!

Anyway I was agreeing that Joan Hickson was perfect as Miss Marple (she incidentally has a small part in a Margaret Rutherford Marple film.)

However I don't mind the ITV Marple. They are a pantomime version certainly. But I do find the star-studded episodes entertaining. Certainly not going to get a nostalgic-Christie feeling.

Can't tolerate anyone as Poirot other than David Suchet. Peter Ustinov was woeful miscasting. Find the recent film (Kenneth Branagh) similar to ITV marple that it's entertaining but missing the Christie feel. Haven't see any other actor and won't lie, I wouldn't chose to!! (I will not speak of John Malkovich's portrayal, except I wish I didnt know it.)

fedup21 · 19/12/2019 10:09

but there's also a scene like that in A Murder Is Announced

Yes! Was it Murgatroyd and Hinch?

Does she suddenly remember that..,‘She’ wasn’t there!!!

CourtOfProtection · 19/12/2019 10:19

Love this thread. Can I join the....

AGATHA APPRECIATION ASSOCIATION Grin

Found this which a pp mentioned www.broadcastnow.co.uk/tv-critics/agatha-christie-and-the-curse-of-ishtar/5145683.article Not sure I'll like it, but will watch anyway.

Would love to find the Joan Hickson ones as I've watched everything else I can find. Alibi you say. Cheers!

CourtOfProtection · 19/12/2019 10:21

Dammit. Alibi is a pay to view channel Sad

soupforbrains · 19/12/2019 12:30

I've been looking for the Hickson episodes on a platform I have for ages. They are sadly absent.

the ITV ones are not on Netflix or included in Amazon Prime either (although you can purchases episodes/series on prime video if you want) Thanks to endless re-runs on ITV3 you can catch about 20 episodes on the ITV player at any given time though.

I currently have a NOW TV free pass so I checked that out too but no such luck.

The Mark Gatiss (2008 version of Crooked House which i think is brilliatn, is included in Prime though.

efeslight · 19/12/2019 13:09

Another huge fan since childhood here, of film and tv versions, and the books of course. Have carried my AC collection around with me for years, and occasionally reread 1 or 2 but could never get rid of them. Most of the recent remakes have been 'sexed up' and disappointing but the 'And then there were none,' BBC remake with Sam Neill from a few years ago, was really gripping and scary.

soupforbrains · 19/12/2019 13:14

@Dowser yes! It's honestly wonderful and so very 'Agatha Christie' The sets and costumes are beautifully 'of the era' You won't get any spoilers from me, or from almost anyone who has been to see it as it's rather a tradition that the secret is kept.

Do go, and if you're looking to keep it low cost they keep back 20 front row tickets for sale on the day which are VERY reasonably priced and obviously excellent seats.

fedup21 · 19/12/2019 13:24

I've been looking for the Hickson episodes on a platform I have for ages. They are sadly absent.

I really want to watch them as well! Don’t want to buy all the dvds though.