Marple: The Body in the Library (2004) (TV)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Andy Wilson

Writers:

Agatha Christie (novel)
Kevin Elyot (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 December 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

A young woman's corpse is dumped in the library of Gossington Hall, home of Jane Marple's friend Dolly Bantry and her husband Arthur...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Miss Marple | Lesbian Interest | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Jane Marple
Ian Richardson	...	Conway Jefferson
Tara Fitzgerald	...	Adelaide Jefferson
Jamie Theakston	...	Mark Gaskell
Giles Oldershaw	...	Edwards
Florence Hoath	...	Pamela Reeves
Joanna Lumley	...	Dolly Bantry
James Fox	...	Colonel Arthur Bantry
Simon Callow	...	Colonel Terence Melchett
Ben Miller	...	Basil Blake
Emma Cooke	...	Dinah Lee
Robin Soans	...	Dr. Haydock
Bruce Mackinnon	...	Scamper (as Bruce MacKinnon)
Jack Davenport	...	Superintendent Harper
Mary Stockley	...	Josie Turner

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie's Marple (UK)
Agatha Christie's Marple: The Body in the Library (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Dorney Court, Dorney, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Chorion

Trivia:

The producers of this series of Miss Marple TV dramas have set her home village of St Mary Mead in Oxfordshire. From clues given in the Agatha Christie books, if a real county was guessed at, Hampshire would be the likely location for St Mary Mead.

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Dolly Bantry: Isn't she marvelous?

Movie Connections:

Version of The Body in the Library (1984) (TV)

"All in all a major disappointment."

In 1951; Miss Marple investigates the murder of a pretty young dancer whom was discovered in the library of Colonel Bantry's house in the village of St Mary Mead.

Riding high on the success of their long-running Poirot series (it's now in it's fifteenth year), ITV have now turned their attention to Christie's second most famous sleuth, the inquisitive English spinster Miss Marple. The quality of their Poirot franchise has decreased in the last couple of years and this latest attempt at Miss Marple is patchy to say the least. We were given a somewhat amateurish remake of DEATH ON THE NILE earlier this year and this adaptation fails to show any feeling for period detail and seems content to let the cast play it as if it's a feeble English pantomime in aid of the church roof fund and Helen McEwan's Miss Marple isn't up to the standard of Joan Hickson's or even Margaret Rutherford's. Matters are not helped by the colour photography, which is so thick that one would like to walk up to the screen and scrape some of it off with a palette knife. As demonstrated in DEATH ON THE NILE, in this work you have to wait for odd piercing moments like at the climax when there is some genuine emotion shown by the guilty party and a poorly acted film is suddenly redeemed for a few brief moments. Another minor point of merit is the use of flashbacks and that livens things up a little bit, but all in all THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY is a major disappointment with very little to commend it what so ever when one thinks what more talented directors like Andrew Grieve or Brian Farnham from Poirot's golden era might of done with it. The film's faithfulness to Christie is also questionable since the motives for murder are entirely different than in the original novel.

A Murder At The Vicarage and 4:50 From Paddington promptly followed, both were even worse than this one. However, the final entry in this series, A Murder Is Announced, is a lot better with more controlled direction by John Strickland (not Stephen Whitaker - sorry!). In this episode the actors took their roles more seriously and there was also some suggestions of directorial style. Astonishingly, this series has proved successful enough to warrant four more episodes being made.