Calling all fans of the Poirot/Marple TV series

[ILoveMyYuccaPlant]

After browsing ITVX for something to watch I was excited to see that they have all the episodes of both of these series. I'm off work tomorrow and planning to have a lazy day of watching one or two of these while the kids are at school. I've read almost all the Poirot books and watched a few of the episodes (Death On The Nile, Orient Express, Roger Ackroyd) but never read any Marple although I plan to do so this year.

Any recommendations on favourite episodes that are well worth a watch? Or alternatively are there any to avoid?

Thanks!

I think one of the best Poirot episodes is Peril at end house. It’s not one of my favourite books but the tv setting is absolutely lush and it’s a really good episode for Hastings and Miss Lemon.

A PP upthread recommended all about Agatha. The podcast was recommended on another thread and it’s given me hours of listening pleasure. Mainly disagreeing with their ratings of my favourite books.

There was a really good interview on the podcast with Agatha Christie’s UK publisher. He’d published the recent 12 Marple short stories. He said that three of the authors came up with a secret pregnancy that only Miss Marple spotted. So two of them had to rewrite the stories

I always disagree with the podcast as well. They didn’t like the Hickory Dickory Dock adaptation at all. Mainly because it involved faggots and they couldn’t grasp that a British faggot is indeed a classic teatime tradition

It doesn't sound that good, that's a pity.
I'd expect a little bit more from a good Miss Marple than her spotting an unannounced pregnancy
I'll wait till it's 99p on kindle, I think!

"I don't know how you say it in English, but in Belgian we say it is forbid le faggot"

Loosely translated from the film!

Hickory Dickory Dock is one of those later Agatha Christie novels where you feel like she's not really happy setting things in a more modern world.

I feel like the Suchet version is one of the segue versions where it's a bit more gritty looking, with the cinematography, although I'm not sure where it comes in the transmissions? You get a strong sense of the times, living in the lodgings and the cold weather.

I can see how that style of storytelling makes adapting the story hard.
Maybe they should have opened with Dr. Sheppard giving a voice over while writing at a desk; laying out how amazing the deductive powers of his friend Poirot are, while we see the wrap up of another case, leading in to the opening scenes of the Doctor greeting Poirot at the cottage. Then near the end of the episode cutting back as we realise it's a written confession and have the camera pan out to reveal he's surrounded by Poirot and the police.
Having the story told that way may have let them keep the twist. I do love the retirement cottage scenes at the start of this episode.

It is a great episode for her to go out on, but you are forgetting one thing. It's not her last episode, she's in "Evil Under The Sun" too.
Easy to forget as there is an 8 year gap.

As a decades old (v.old!) AC fan, I read most of her books in the 1970s and have watched most of the film/short series broadcasts since then.

I realise that TV/film adaptations always have to bow to the pen of the scriptwriter along with the ability to transfer narrative to the Big Screen.

However, the difference between the Joan Hicks version of Nemesis compared to the Geraldine McEwan version had me spitting feathers.... I think the writers of the GM version went seriously off piste with their changing of the plot.

I was so certain of my memory of reading the book back in the 1970s (which allied to the JH version) that I bought it second hand online just to double check the GM version was just far too skewed...

I was right. It's a travesty...

Both the Geraldine McEwan and the Julia McKenzie versions play fast and loose with the original text. I tried to watch the adaption of "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" which didn't even feature Miss Marple in the original but it was so dire I couldn't finish.

Ooops, oh well let's pretend it came last 😉

I suspect over the last 15 years the people who control the rights have signed off on anything to get much money as possible from the properties, time is running out and the copyrights are expiring.

The mysterious affair at styles, The murder of Roger Ackroyd and this year a bunch of Short stories (The chocolate box, The Plymouth express, the case of the missing will and so on.) Have all reached the point of public domain status, anyone can adapt them without payment.

Wasn't there a very strict thing about rights for decades? Doesn't/didn't AC grandson hold them for ages? Wasn't there something about the stage plays or something ...?

Of course The Mouse Trap is the background to the film See How They Run. Found that not very good and they weren't really interested in making AC real or Sir Max Mallowan.

Still holds them, I think. Copyright in the UK runs for 70 years from the death of the author, which in Dame Agatha's case was on 12th January 1976.

Im currently watching the mirror crackd. The line about her child has been cut. I watched evil under the sun last weekend.

Really annoyed me how the newer Marples change the story. The lesbian couple in body in the library, and Miss Marple having had an affair with a married man.

What? Miss Marple would never do that. She had very strong morals

@Lovinmyblanket in the new version of Murder at the vicarage, she has an affair with a soldier who is killed in WW1. As you say. She would have been horrified by that!

Looking it up the rights (for the countries where copyright expires 50+ and 70+ years after the authors death) are held by her grandson, you're right.

It must be a big blow having it expire in the US, as by extension most of the English speaking internet is US hosted, I bet that's made a dent in publishing rights. Project Gutenberg and Wikimedia are hosting the public domain stuff already. I bet budget books collections will be soon.