scotmr

Julia McKenzie is a wonderful actress, well-known for her role in the English comedy Fresh Fields and its sequel French Fields. She was also wonderful in Shirley Valentine. Ms McKenzie is an elegant, quality actress who brings a touch of class to her roles ... all except for Miss Jane Marple.

Julia McKenzie is just too young, tall and attractive for this role. Miss Marple is traditionally a wizened, sometimes dithery, diminutive old lady, who is unnoticed and unobtrusive - but sees all.

It is a pity but this is not the right role for Julia McKenzie. Geraldine McEwan, Joan Hickson, Helen Hayes - even dizzy Margaret Rutherford are more suited to the stereotype of a Miss Marple.

Other than that, the classic Agatha Christie stories cannot be beaten.

If ever you thought television couldn't sink so low, watch this incredible tripe. You will sit - open mouthed - as you watch scene-after-scene get worse than the one before.

It calls itself a drama, but I have watched it just to cheer myself up on a dismal day.

The dreadful acting is only surpassed by whomsoever called him/herself a scriptwriter. I would not be at all surprised if the orangutan - yes, there's an orangutan - wrote the scripts, but I reckon it would do a better job.

Poor John Mills will be spinning in his grave to see his daughter Juliett playing a ditsy witch named Tabatha. And 'Tabatha' isn't the only character the mediocre scriptwriters have stolen from the 'Bewitched' television series of the 60s. You will also find 'Hecuba' and even the farcical 'Dr Bombay', played by the original actor! Then there was the 'living doll' Timmy who, when he came alive, talked of himself in the third person and with a terrible lisp, whilst wearing gloves stolen from a Mickey Mouse marionette. (The poor actor has since died.)

No, for a fun afternoon watching a car crash, tune in to Passions... it's like Little Britain and The Office rolled into one, but without the intentional comedy.