Miss Marple: Se anuncia un asesinato

This is, in my opinion, Christie's best Miss Marple book. The plot is ingenious, carefully woven and highly intricate. The ending is pure brilliance, and you will kick yourself because you didn't guess the identity earlier.

This BBC adaptation is also superb. It has a suitable running length, enough time for the viewer to absorb the information given to them, and Joan Hickson excels as Miss Marple. Her apparent scattiness hides her true genius to the rest of the cast, and Joan Hickson is perfect at playing Miss Marple in this way; far better than Margaret Rutherford and Geraldine McEwan's dreadful attempts . The supporting cast are also very good, featuring Ursulla Howles, Paola Dionisotti, Joan Sims, Sylvia Syms, Kevin Whately and Simon Shepard (of 'Peak Practice' Fame).

Having read the book very recently, and then watched this adaptation over Christmas on UKTV Gold, I can say that the plot is faithful to the original tome. I can highly recommend it.

I really loved this adaptation. I felt it stuck closely to the book and it was well casted. I initially hesitated to see this version after being extremely dissapointed with "Ten Little Indians/And then there were none.

Rent it - I think you wont be disappointed either

I've avoided Miss Marple my whole life, focusing on Dorothy Sayers. But then I realized that I'm now as old as Jane Marple. Hickson plays Marple with wonderful restraint, and John Castle is great as the brooding thoughtful inspector. It was delightful to see Inspector Lewis (Kevin Whatley) transported into the post WW2 village.

This is an engrossing mystery and I appreciate that there is zero campiness in this adaptation, thank goodness. The Geraldine McEwan versions are ghastly. Here the production values are excellent, and the Scotland exterior was terrific. Young Samantha Bond is luminous. Very well done though oddly, it's easy to peg the show as from the 1980s because of the musical frissons.

I loved this adaptation! The acting is very good all the way thro' with fantastic performances from Ursula Howells (Miss Blacklock), Renee Asherton (Miss Bunner) and, of course, Joan Hickson - who *is* (in my opinion) Miss Jane Marple - just the way that Dame Agatha described her in the books.

Having read the book several times, I'm pleased and relieved that it wasn't "butchered" as some TV adapations can be, it remained faithful to Dame Agatha's book.

All in all, a very good adapation with, in places, humourous touches.

Like Jack who commented before me here, I saw this show over Christmas on UKTV Drama. I had never seen the Joan Hickson adaptations before now and when I saw the recent ITV Marple's I was told to watch the old BBC adaptations as they are far superior, and they are.

I feel the ITV versions are almost played as farcical comedy whereas the BBC versions are more serious and are far more intriguing and allowing you to get involved in the mystery and none more so than in 'A Murder Is Announced'. I literally had no idea who the culprit was right up until the very end and it was certainly a complex mystery, but an excellent one.

This was originally shown over 3 nights in 1985 however I saw it all in one 3 hour viewing, yet it certainly did not feel like that at all. Joan Hickson is brilliant as Miss Marple. The Geraldine McEwan take on Miss Marple is almost amateurish in comparison. The supporting cast here, including Joan Sims, Kevin Whately and Samantha Bond are all excellent and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has not yet seen it.