AIBU?
Zoe Wanamaker is a terrible Ariadne Oliver
Needhelp101 · 26/04/2021 20:29
Bit obscure, I know, and only for Agatha Christie fans (I've been revisiting Poirot and Miss Marple for some comfort viewing) but Zoe isn't Ariadne. She's far too clipped and curt for the character.
On the other hand, David Suchet is perfection as Poirot.
Am I being unreasonable?
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sadpapercourtesan · 26/04/2021 21:08
I can't stand her. She's awful in Poirot and even worse in Harry Potter.
I do think Joan Hickson is a brilliant Marple, but have to admit Geraldine McEwan was really good as well - she's got that twinkly cleverness in her face that works really well. And Margarent Rutherford is a pure delight. The less said about Julia McKenzie the better.
PerkingFaintly · 26/04/2021 21:27
@Mummy1608
Me too!
Suchet and Hickson are, of course, the canonical incarnations of their characters (as is Jeremy Brett of Holmes), but I have a lot of affection for McEwan and McKenzie.
It's just a different sort of programme with them, and I enjoy them in a different way.
Diverseopinions · 26/04/2021 22:11
Zoe Wanamaker was good as Ariadne.
She's got that slight woman's lib feel, and she looks the part of the literary writer.
There are so many blood hound-type older ladies in the books - like Mrs Masterson in 'Dead Man's Folly', that you don't want more.
Also, if she became friends with that ethereal , blonde beauty in 'Halloween', I don't think she'd be a bulldog in tweeds; I also think that Poirot liked to be friends with attractive yet intelligent women , like Zoe: not with an eccentric Margaret Rutherford type at all.
June Whitfield was very good as that ' unsafe' old lady in the one about the picture, and twins with flower names, which Geraldine McEwan starred in as Marple, along with a very impressive Greta Satchi as Tuppence.
userlotsanumbers · 26/04/2021 22:15
Big AC fan here, got all the books and I never tire of reading them. A mind like a steel trap. Joan Hickson, David Suchet (and a random Jeremy Brett) are the best actors for those characters, absolutely how I imagined them. Zoe W...I have to concur. Too curt, not vague enough.
UserEleventyNine · 26/04/2021 22:22
I always think Ariadne should be quite large and have a bosom, draped with scarves and jewellery.
Ariadne was Agatha's alter ego, so I always imagine her looking like Agatha, but more exuberant and unconventional and less organised. Flowing dress rather than tailored suit. Agatha by all accounts was quite shy and reserved, Ariadne wasn't.
covilha · 26/04/2021 22:52
Love AC- thanks for starting this thread OP💐.
Joan Hickson- the definitive Miss Marple for me. Apparently a very prescient Agatha Christie wrote to her after seeing her in one of her plays saying she hoped Joan would play her “dear Miss Marple” one day. Commendations don’t come any higher than that!
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