Une poignée de seigle

Rex Fortescue, a wealthy businessman, collapses and dies in his office. He was poisoned. In his pocket are rye seeds.

It turns out Rex wasn't very well liked. He has a very young, pretty wife who fools around with a tennis pro. She, too, is found dead.

Gladys, a clumsy maid in the household, was actually trained by Miss Marple. Very distressed about the murders, she asks Marple for help. But it's too late - Gladys herself is found murdered.

The murders follow the nursery rhyme - Sing a Song of Sixpence: The queen was in the parlor, the maid was in the garden - who played pranks on Rex using blackbirds, and who is committing the murders?

Intriguing story with karma taking over at the end as Miss Marple experiences this rather unpleasant family. The actress Fabia Drake has some great, biting lines.

I very much like the atmosphere and characterizations found in these stories. I admit I always pictured Miss Marple a little softer, a more sweet old lady whose knowledge is a surprise, but I do like Joan Hickson. She comes off as very shrewd.

The good cast includes a very young Annette Badland, Peter Davison, and the aforementioned Drake.

Probably the least interesting of the BBC TV adaptions; and one of the few unavailable on DVD for some reason. The only really entertaining parts come from the formidable elderly actress Fabia Drake, who plays "Miss Henderson". She wanders around making stern condemning comments; the best comes when the ditzy young blonde wife makes a comment about going to the Clubhouse (located on a nearby golf-course as I recall). Miss Henderson gives a loud sniff, and mutters "Clubhouse! .... WHOREhouse!" which always leaves me in stitches. Otherwise its not that memorable; I can't recall if the book itself was very interesting to begin with. Its fun to see Tom Wilkinson in a younger role.

Wealthy businessman Rex Fortescue dies in agony, poisoned with taxin. A man disliked by even his nearest and dearest, his death described as a stain gone. Miss Marple steps in when the Fortescue's made Gladys is cruelly killed, Gladys having been in Miss Marple's employ once.

Agatha Christie wrote her characters big, and those characters create brilliantly into this adaptation, Gladys, The Crumps, Rex. Everyone performs but I'll highlight those I believe to be the standouts, firstly Fabia Drake, who makes Aunt Effy one of the standout characters, she is superb, the scene where she first encounters Miss Marple is exceptional, she had steel. Peter Davison, a year after he finished Doctor Who, managed better then anyone not to become typecast, here he gets to show the nice guy side we've all seen, but also let rip at the end, a brilliant actor. I also enjoy Selina Caddell's Miss Dove, she is so on point to the character in the book, so straight laced and serious, it's a measured performance.

It goes without saying that Hickson performs another masterclass, absent for pretty much the first half, when she does appear she adds massively to it, that's not to say the start flagged without her, far from it.

The attention to detail from beginning to end is incredible, lavishly produced, it's all the small touches that make it feel so big, the Gardner at the start, the arrival of Pat and Lance off be aeroplane, this level of detail just isn't there so much these days, presumably cost.

There is enough intrigue here for first time mystery fans, and there's more then enough quality for those of us that know this story inside out. Utterly brilliant 10/10

At first, the first murder in "A Pocketful of Rye" seems pretty straight forward. A rich man dies at work and it seems someone gave him poison 2-3* hours earlier. So, you assume someone in his will is responsible. But his unfaithful wife isn't...as she is poisoned next. But when a maid is killed...well that seems to make no sense. Then Miss Marple realizes the way they died were related to the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Six Pence". Who's possibly next and who is behind all this? And, why choose that or any nursery rhyme?

This is a most entertaining series...one that is well worth seeing. Well written and quite enjoyable.

*In most shows, a poisoned person dies within seconds of receiving the poison. I read up on this...and that never happens...even with cyanide. So, having the first person die hours after receiving the poison is actually very realistic as many poisons take hours to kill.

Mr. Fortescue dies in his office poisoned by taxine (extracted from yew trees) and his entire family is suspect: his too young wife, her young handsome lover, his stuffy son, his son's self-absorbed wife, his fanatically religious sister-in-law, even the butter-won't-melt-in-her-mouth housekeeper. The wild adventurous black sheep son of the family shows up with a new wife in the middle of these tensions just as two more murders are committed. One of these deaths becomes very personal for Jane Marple who gets involved.

Probably, arguably, the best of the Marple episodes (I would put it side by side with "4:50 from Paddington") as Christie's masterfully reveals and at the same time obscures the identity of the murderer. I think all will find the solution to the puzzle intriguing while enjoying the excellent performances: look for a young Tom Wilkinson as well as Selina Cadell. Annette Badland (as of this writing starring in Midsomer Murders) is also very good as the dim-witted maid who knows too much and whose fate brings Jane Marple (her former employer) into the fray.

And best of all the nursery rhyme (from which the title comes), rather than a conceit, is a vital part of the mystery and its solution.