Rent Miss Marple: The Body in The Library (2004)

Middling - Miss Marple: The Body in The Library review by SB

This is not such a mess as some of the other ITV Marple films. Geraldine McEwan makes a good Marple, the period settings are mostly fine if a little too glitzy, and there are some unexpected pleasures such as Simon Callow's splenetic Chief Constable. But once again the producers cannot trust Christie, so we have to endure Joanna Lumley in a much souped-up role as Dolly Bantry, while wasting the talents of James Fox who plays her husband. Ian Richardson is slightly uneasy casting as Conway Jefferson, okay at the start but unconvincing in later more emotional scenes.

Meanwhile the script is amended to have a different murderer from that in the novel, apparently for no better reason than to have a late-signalled lesbian affair and passionate kiss on the beach. The film is worth watching but yet again, see the BBC/Hickson version for the real thing.