L'affaire Protheroe

"Ah yes.... St. Mary Mead...Miss Marple." Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) faces his old nemesis in this version of Murder at the Vicarage.

A hated magistrate is murdered, and two people - his wife and her lover - confess to the crime.

This apparently was the first Christie book where Marple appears, and she is actually set up by the killer to be a witness. In this adaptation, she is involved in that way, but manages to be around beforehand.

Several people wanted the victim, Colonel Protheroe (Robert Lang) dead. The aforementioned wife and lover, an artist, for sure; his stepdaughter, a cleric who is suspected of embezzling church funds, the local doctor, an ex-con, and a woman who was heard arguing with him.

Inspector Slack, alas, doesn't have much choice. He needs Jane Marple on this one. And in the end, he's able to work with her to unmask a killer.

I found this episode on the slow side and not as interesting, though the denouement was clever.

As others have pointed out, Cheryl Campbell as the Reverend's wife was delightful. Jane Hickson is an excellent Miss Marple.

This episode wasn't a two-parter.

Like Cabot Cove in Maine, USA, St.Mary Mead in Great Britain seems to be the murder capital of that country. You would think so with Miss Marple solving all those murders in and around there.

The murder victim in this case is a very nasty sort of man who has the title colonel from his army days. Robert Lang is a nasty version of that satirical figure from the United Kingdom between the wars Colonel Blimp. his guy expects his family to address him as Colonel and they do. He's pretty disliked by one and all.

Reverend Paul Eddington finds Lang slumped over his (Eddington's) desk at the vicarage. There's a long list of suspects.

What the two who planned it also planned to use Jane Marple as an alibi witness as they know she's outside tending her garden at the time planned. Both make sure Joan Hickson sees them. It's what throws off both Scotland Yard as Miss Marple.

Hickson comes pretty close to what I think Agatha Christie wanted in Jane Marple. Hickson was 80 when she did this Marple series for the BB, this particular episode. The villains think her advanced age makes dotty. But she fools them.

It is difficult to understand ITV's decision to remake the Miss Marple series, because in Joan Hickson we have the definitive interpretation of Agatha Christie's amateur sleuth. This particular story, Miss Marple's first fictional outing,dates from 1930, but the writer, T.R. Bowen has skilfully updated it to the 1950s. The script is witty and the cast is endowed with such acting stalwarts as Paul Eddington and Rosalie Crutchley. If the plot does not seem so original now it is because Christie's work was so often copied, and what must have seemed innovative in 1930 now appears to be hackneyed. All that said it is a story well told and worth a couple of hours of anyone's time.

I really enjoyed this adaptation of "The Murder at the Vicarage". It is not as good as the delightful "A Murder is Announced" but it is very enjoyable, and not only one of the better Joan Hickson adaptations, but a considerable improvement over the Geraldine McEwan version(though that was one of the better adaptations of that series I feel). The pace is solid, the pace was a problem I had with "They Do it With Mirrors" which is my least favourite of the series, and the story is well structured. There is a nice witty script and lovely production values. The acting is very good in general, the only weaknesses for me being that James Hazeldine underplaying his role of Lawrence Redding and Polly Adams a little too stiff as Anne. Joan Hickson really makes this work though, with a simple charm and wisdom she is for me the best Miss Marple, and out of the supporting cast I loved Cheryl Campbell as Griselda, a delightful performance from a great actress. I liked the music too, really pleasant to listen to. Overall, I really enjoyed this adaptation. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple and hasn't ever been beaten. Oddly, in this one she doesn't actually change her "outfit". I believe she wears the same clothing throughout. Given it 7 as today its clear that BBC in the 80s were already going down the road where "blasphemy" wasn't picked up by "The Vicar" or indeed anyone else, which in the 50s it most certainly would have been. Some of the language is therefore typically BBC trying to "update" when it wasn't needed. Inspector Slack and his sidekick are well suited to these things of allowing the "intruder" (miss marple) to steal their thunder. Never tire of watching Joan Hickson in one of these and compared to most offerings today with "same sex" and increased foul language its rather pleasant to have something that for the most part is watchable even if the plot line is pretty thin