Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced (1985)

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Never believe an old lady who seems inoffensive and brittle if not endangered. The nicest and fairest mug can hide the worst and sneakiest criminal. But not in the eyes of Miss Marple because she sees with her brain and not with her sole eyes or sole heart. The story is fairly crooked enough to hold you till the end and all along it points at some possible culprits, some of them being pure liars, and yet it is not what you may think. The best liars are always those who do not tell lies, aren't they? But Miss Marple will use her ocular scalpel and dissect these true lies to reveal the lie in the truth like the worm in the fruit. She is a darling old lady but do not try to fool her and in this case one tried and too many others did not realize they were trying. A few rulers will fall on a few knuckles. Fascinatingly thrilling, though charmingly slow except at the speedy Gonzalez end.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

Like Jack who commented before me here, I saw this show over Christmas on UKTV Drama. I had never seen the Joan Hickson adaptations before now and when I saw the recent ITV Marple's I was told to watch the old BBC adaptations as they are far superior, and they are.I feel the ITV versions are almost played as farcical comedy whereas the BBC versions are more serious and are far more intriguing and allowing you to get involved in the mystery and none more so than in 'A Murder Is Announced'. I literally had no idea who the culprit was right up until the very end and it was certainly a complex mystery, but an excellent one.This was originally shown over 3 nights in 1985 however I saw it all in one 3 hour viewing, yet it certainly did not feel like that at all. Joan Hickson is brilliant as Miss Marple. The Geraldine McEwan take on Miss Marple is almost amateurish in comparison. The supporting cast here, including Joan Sims, Kevin Whately and Samantha Bond are all excellent and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has not yet seen it.

This is, in my opinion, Christie's best Miss Marple book. The plot is ingenious, carefully woven and highly intricate. The ending is pure brilliance, and you will kick yourself because you didn't guess the identity earlier.This BBC adaptation is also superb. It has a suitable running length, enough time for the viewer to absorb the information given to them, and Joan Hickson excels as Miss Marple. Her apparent scattiness hides her true genius to the rest of the cast, and Joan Hickson is perfect at playing Miss Marple in this way; far better than Margaret Rutherford and Geraldine McEwan's dreadful attempts . The supporting cast are also very good, featuring Ursulla Howles, Paola Dionisotti, Joan Sims, Sylvia Syms, Kevin Whately and Simon Shepard (of 'Peak Practice' Fame).Having read the book very recently, and then watched this adaptation over Christmas on UKTV Gold, I can say that the plot is faithful to the original tome. I can highly recommend it.

The plot _is_ a little more complex than most of Christies, but this only _adds_ to the plausibility of the outcome. Most of Christie's plots are about skeletons in cupboards, hidden secrets, that sort of thing. There are just more in this one, but it's no more complex than, say, a Robert Goddard. Are you sure you were paying attention?!