Viva Miss Marple

We have discovered the “Miss Marple” TV movies starring Joan Hickson as Agatha Christie’s harmless little old lady who solves the most perplexing crimes. You can watch them on youtube for free.

These are simply wonderful. If you’re worn out with watching America get torn down by the very people who are supposed to be building it up, if you just can’t stand your balky drains anymore, if the gossiping neighbor is giving you a headache–well, here’s a welcome, albeit temporary, escape.

I read somewhere that Joan Hickson–who was not, at the time, anywhere near being an old lady–was Agatha Christie’s personal choice to play “my dear Miss Marple.” That was a little stroke of genius. Hickson brings the character to life: not only that, but somehow even invests her with a subtle kind of nobility. Hickson’s Miss Marple is someone we’d love to tell our troubles to.

I love the Miss Marple stories because they’re so bold in their conception. Here is a detective who cannot beat up the bad guys, who is not a master of disguise, and who, in fact, is always very vulnerable: you sometimes get the feeling that her health might not last out the case. Indeed, in one of my favorite Marple novels, A Caribbean Mystery, this harmless little lady’s only ally against a ruthless multiple murderer is an old man confined to a wheelchair with a terminal illness!

These Hickson movies are remarkable in the producers’ and writers’ determination to stick as closely to the actual plot as possible: and so the novels are truly brought to life.

Now, if only I could get Miss Marple to take a look at my drains…