ITV are showing the new Marples from Sunday 6th September.
Julia McKenzie speaks about them in The Times
She's also on the cover of the Radio Times this week.
A new biography of Margaret Rutherford will be published by Aurum in September -
See link: - Aurum Press Newsletter
The last biography was by her adopted son/daughter, Dawn Langley Simmons, published in 1983. I had a correspondence with Dawn in the 80s, but sadly Dawn is no longer with us.
I hope this new book celebrates Margaret's many different talents. Let us not forget the wide variety of different roles she payed on stage and screen. As much as I love the Miss Marples, Margaret played a wide variety of different characters throughout her career. She did, after all, play the sinister Mrs Danvers in Daphne Du Muurier' s Rebecca and Daphne wrote in 1982 that Margaret was "true to the book". A far cry from Miss Marple! She was also a very moving poetry reader and her recordings can be heard in the National Sound Archives.
ITV are showing the new Marples from Sunday 6th September.
Julia McKenzie speaks about them in The Times
She's also on the cover of the Radio Times this week.
looking forward to it as i've never watched a single episode of any miss marple adaptation and have only just started reading agatha christie.
just for you all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwc1qoZW5kM
I`m looking forward to this, Julia won`t be too decrepid, if at all, which always puts me off some of the Marples. Ditsy old women with little timid voices shouldn`t be involved in such stuff!ITV are showing the new Marples from Sunday 6th September.
xx
Personally I find Geraldine McEwan, Julia McKenzie and Joan Hickson deeply annoying busybodies lacking in any charm. None have really captured that youthful mischievousness of Margaret Rutherford.
101%Personally I find Geraldine McEwan, Julia McKenzie and Joan Hickson deeply annoying busybodies lacking in any charm. None have really captured that youthful mischievousness of Margaret Rutherford.
Hickson bought a kind of misery-guts to the character that I never felt belonged and McEwan - sometimes I thought she was too skittish, almost flighty.
I've not seen McKenzie yet, and don't really feel drawn to setting aside the time to watch.
Whilst they took some liberties, the Rutherford small bunch of Marples were excellent. We used to go to see them, even though they were the supports. The main films that they were with have long faded from memory, but never Rutherford's .
![]()
A brilliant match together but, I left it on the recorder and (as usual!) the BBC overrun the start so I am missing the classic few minutes at the end where Justice is asking her to marry himMurder She Said (1961)
I enjoyed watching the chemistry between Margaret Rutherford and James Robertson Justice in this film. Excellent.![]()
Absolutely, deliberately played it for humour (roller skate under the door mat in Murder She SaidSame here! And that's why Margaret Rutherford was the best Miss Marple, for me. She was wonderful. I really don't like any of the other Miss Marples at all, but that's probably because I don't like the character herself. An irritating old ankle-biter! At least MR brought some humour to her.). What about 'The Happiest Days of Our Lives' her being the head mistress sharing a boys school with Alasteir Sim. Magic
'an ever proceeding tour of depravity' (quote)
Just caught the end of a promo on TCM (UK) telling us there's a Margaret Rutherford Season starting 13th September. I believe they will be showing all the Miss Marple series.![]()
Fortunately...I went to hospital last month and came across Rutherford's biography! A great read, written by her adopted step-daughter...but the writer did go on about herself and her own sexulity far too much.
God Bless you 'sheriff_bart' for posting the youtube clip. That tune brings back so many memories of watching old black and white movies over the holidays as a kid....mainly because we only ever had five TV channels to watch!
If anyone is interested, the following is on TV over the next week:
Murder At The Gallop : Thursday 10th December : 9pm : TCM2
Murder Most Foul : Saturday 12th December : 1.10pm : CH5
Enjoy!
Give Andy Merriman's a read, a useful corre ctive to the one you readFortunately...I went to hospital last month and came across Rutherford's biography! A great read, written by her adopted step-daughter...but the writer did go on about herself and her own sexulity far too much.![]()
Even the weakest of the 4(IMO) Murder Ahoy is enriched by the performance of Margaret Rutherford, she was a one off(as was Alastair Sim). My favourite is the one with Joan Hickson in it and the train, superb but all enjoyable.
She got some exceptional support in her films from the likes of Robert Morley, Lionel Jeffries and Charles Tingwell and many others IMHOEven the weakest of the 4(IMO) Murder Ahoy is enriched by the performance of Margaret Rutherford, she was a one off(as was Alastair Sim). My favourite is the one with Joan Hickson in it and the train, superb but all enjoyable.![]()
Can't decide which of the Rutherford Miss Marple films we like best. Each of the four has its own charme and features the unforgettable Margaret Rutherford as well as an excellent supporting cast. Never get bored watching the re-runs on TV.
I bought the four Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple movies in a boxed set a few weeks ago. I'm not really a fan of Agatha Chritie's books, but I do like the adaptations of her stories on film and TV (although I find I don't like the latest Miss Marple much). I don't know if Margaret Rutherford's interpretation is as true to the books as later versions (I suspect that her character is more Margaret Rutherford than it is Miss Marple), but as films they're great fun to watch.
I wish Christie had allowed them to make more as there was to be a return to the Marple novels with an adaptation of A Body In The Library.
Rutherford as Marple rating in my opinion:
1 Murder She Said (4.50 From Paddington)
2 Murder Ahoy
3 Murder Most Foul
4 Murder at the Gallop
All have brilliant supporting cast, but highlights have to be Lionel Jeffries in Ahoy, Ron Moody in Most Foul and Charles Tingwall and Stringer Davies as reluctant support throughout.
Never liked Joan Hickson, always played bad tempered shrew like characters pre her Marple stint. Geraldine McEwan, Julia McKenzie both are fine actors, but the recent ITV productions have really just been over the top star packed entertainments rather than Christie related pieces.
I'm a sucker for anything with Rutherford in, even bought a Norman Wisdom DVD 'Trouble in Store' just to have the brilliant Rutherfod shoplifting sequence to watch over and over!
Murder Most Foul is on Five at 1.10 today - I don't think it's been shown on that or any other channel for quite a few years.