La dernière énigme

A young woman, Gwenda Reed (Geraldine Alexander) falls in love with a house in England and insists that she and her new husband Giles (John Moulder-Brown) buy it.

As she stands on the stairway, she has a vision of a blond woman dead on the floor below. It doesn't make sense to her. She was sent from India to New Zealand as a child when her mother died to live with relatives. Her father remarried in England, but his wife eventually left him.

She starts renovations, which turn out to be actual features once in the house. She becomes nervous and frightened. When her Giles, who is away, calls and invites her to join him, she does.

It turns out one of his friends is Miss Marple's nephew Raymond (David McAlister) and she is visiting. That night, they all attend a performance of The Duchess of Malfi. During the monologue "Cover her face," she lets out a horrific scream and has to be taken back to the friends' home.

Gwenda confides everything to Miss Marple. Miss Marple believes she probably was in England at one point as a child and in that house. But she urges her not to delve into the past.

Nevertheless, Gwenda and her husband do, interviewing family and past suitors of her stepmother, and the people who worked in the home. Not only is there another murder, but she receives unsettling news about her father.

Excellent story and well done! As an added bonus, the husband reminded me of Brad Pitt! Beautifully photographed and much closer to the actual story than the Geraldine McEwan version with some very chilling scenes - such as the discovery of the wallpaper!

Very enjoyable, well cast, and entertaining.

'Sleeping Murder' keeps rolling around on afternoon BBC television, and I have been drawn into the story twice so far. I don't like Miss Marple, so perhaps that is why I find this a decent story - I can't compare it to the books, and the world's oldest detective only crops up every now and again to explain the plot to the newlywed couple. I love the idea of Gwenda subconsciously buying a house from her past, and the details she uncovers, such as the pattern of the wallpaper in the cupboard and the steps in the garden. The history in the house, and the subsequent family tree research, had me hooked. The 'whodunnit' wasn't exactly taxing - just look for the most dubious character, battling with a bad case of pantomime villain - but the unravelling of the clues kept me interested (just about - at times this felt like an epic, instead of an installment of a detective series). The setting, period detail, and characters were all evocative of a storybook version of an era gone by. Perfect Sunday afternoon fodder.

A young couple are looking for a home. The wife is from New Zealand and reared by relatives after her parents die. They locate a home and begin to remodel. As they do, the woman begins to feel like she's been there before identifying features of the house that were long ago removed. Most significantly, she suddenly recalls seeing a woman being strangled in the house. A woman named Helen...

This was the last of the Marple mysteries published and (to my mind) thankfully, Christie didn't kill off her detective (as she eventually does with Poirot). But the mystery is nothing special to be honest but the couple is attractive, and as they revisit the past, they stir up a murderer who strikes again and then comes after the young wife (nicely played by Geraldine Alexander) in a fairly suspenseful climax (for a Christie-based film).

P. S. One odd thing about this episode. We briefly meet Miss Marple's nephew Raymond and his wife, Joan (played by Amanda Boxer). For some reason, the writers create unspoken hostility between Joan and Miss Marple. It's never explained and once the mystery gets going it's never referred to again. Puzzling.

A slow ponderous tale, the last full-length Miss Marple to be published. It had in fact been written during the forties and Christie had intended it to be published after her death. It has the usual surprise twists and turns that we have come to expect from Dame Agatha, but this substandard television production lacks pace and the invasive music ruins any sense of atmosphere. The acting is equally uninspiring, however, John Moulder-Brown appears to be perfectly cast as the vacuous male lead.

The 1980s adaptations starring Joan Hickson are on the slow side by modern standards. This was in fact the last golden age of television before it was ruined by too many channels and the advent of the MTV attention span -- which has sadly affected us all, I fear. This version is lovingly crafted with delightful period details.

Although, in its slowness, this version fails to build up the various suspects as sufficiently menacing, it is a good version which keeps quite faithful to the book. Geraldine Alexander is excellent as Gwenda and to my ears does a super New Zealand accent. John Moulder-Brown is a let-down as her unconvincing animatronic husband, beautifully dressed in the gent's outfitters styles of the period, but far too mannered in his perfect elocution. Joan Hickson does her stuff very well as usual.

It is interesting (if depressing) to compare this with the travesty version starring Geraldine McEwan, where the plot has been mangled -- and garbled -- beyond recognition.