Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye

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.

I recall a British TV series some years back entitled "J'Accuse" the purpose of which was to demolish certain popular sacred cows. They were programmes designed to delight of infuriate according to the predilections of the viewer. From my point of view I was in agreement with the treatment given to "Citizen Kane" but when it came to Laurence Olivier and Agatha Christie, definitely "Non!". As a youngster I devoured practically everything Dame Agatha produced and she remains to this day for my money the absolute mistress of the surprise "Who dun it" particularly when many of the more recent exponents of the genre are running to works of near Dickensian length. Christie needed little more than 200 pages for each of her superb plots, ideal when all you are looking for is a half-day divertissement rather than a complex literary work. For many years her novels seemed to defy good cinematic adaptation. The Rene Clair version of "Ten Little Niggers" worked reasonably well as it had a good cast, bags of atmosphere and stayed fairly true to the book. But then it was remade a couple of times in more exotic locations with disastrous results, the essential ingredient of claustrophobia missing. That was the trouble, Agatha was quintessentially English and cosy with little pretensions to humour. Attempt to make her funny and you have those dire Margaret Rutherford - Miss Marple films that have dated to the extent of becoming excruciatingly embarrassing. Several actors have tackled Poirot with varying results but perhaps it is the very unreality and quirkiness of the character that make the part so difficult to play. Certainly David Suchet is more watchable than Ustinov, Finney and Molina. Miss Marple is a different matter. It just needed to find that someone who could convey the frailty of an elderly spinster with a razor sharp mind that could detect evil in the most unlikely. No wonder that the hammy humour of the well-built Rutherford was so wide of the mark. Angela Lansbury got much closer in the star-studded "The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side", so much so that it seemed that a passable Marple had been discovered. But the film was a one-off and it was only in retrospect after the casting of Joan Hickson in the TV series of the 'eighties and early 'nineties that one realised that Lansbury was not quite right for the part. Hickson however was another matter, casting so inspired that it seemed that she had been waiting all her life of mainly bit-parts as crotchety landladies and barmaids for a role she was just born to play. (See my comments on the 1999 TV adaptation of "David Copperfield" where much the same thing happened for several British stars.) It is the absolute rightness of Hickson in the Marple role that makes this series of twelve easily the best visualisations of Christie's work, that and their faithful recreations of their author's time and place. "A Pocket Full of Rye" is very typical being somewhere between what was easily the best - the brilliantly plotted "A Murder is Announced" with some wonderful supporting roles - and the weakest - "They do it with Mirrors" - where the plot is much less interesting than usual. It enjoys that favourite Christie device of a series of deaths linked with the events of a nursery rhyme, the motivation of money which features in well over half her stories and a plot in which what happens in the present has its roots deeply embedded in the past. It is this latter feature that links her work to that of the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. In both practically everything of significance has happened years before the curtain rises. The past therefore has to be explored in order to explain the present. No wonder that it needed a Miss Marple with the attributes of one who seems to be quietly ferreting away in the background to discover past secrets to make the character absolutely credible. It cannot be done through caricature as Joan Hickson so admirably realised.

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

Wealthy businessman Rex Fortesque is universally loathed. Thus, when he is murdered - poisoned - there's plenty of suspects. However, who had the means to poison him? Miss Marple is following the case in the newspapers and starts to see a link to a nursery rhyme, suggesting that more murders will follow.

Another intriguing Miss Marple mystery. The means and motive are quite clever and not at all obvious. Some very interesting characters too, well played - both Miss Marple staples.

The conclusion does feel a bit rushed and left-field though and the plot not entirely watertight towards the end. These would be the only negatives.

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.