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One of the pleasures of viewing episodes of "Morse" years after their first release, is seeing actors and actresses who are now world-famous, in roles sometimes very different from those for which they are now best known.

In this episode, the first two suspects in the murder of their former business partner (played by Tony Steedman) are played by Richard Wilson (who was famous as grumpy Victor Meldrew in "One Foot in the Grave") and Sean Bean. In prison alongside them is a wrongfully convicted former schoolteacher played by Jim Broadbent. Sue Johnston played Sean Bean's screen wife.

This particular episode is perhaps frustrating for viewers interested in the intellectual development of an investigation, as the true murderer is revealed only in the last minutes by a flash of information only fleetingly revealed to the viewer beforehand. Nevertheless, it is interesting to watch Morse and Lewis each doggedly pursuing their own lines of enquiry. At the same time they are dealing with a brash, high-flying Detective Sergeant, and eventually bring him to earth with a bump, each in their own fashion.

Over the years, several actresses have played Agatha Christie's creation, Miss Jane Marple, spinster of the parish of St. Mary Meade. Their portrayals have generally ranged from understudied to vapid. Margaret Rutherford's performance was unquestionably the most forceful and feisty, though perhaps not very close to Agatha Christie's character as intended. Likewise, "Murder at the Gallop" is rather a pastiche of scenes from a Hercule Poirot novel, "After the Funeral", rather than being a single Miss Marple novel.

Also featuring were Robert Morley, playing, well, Robert Morley, and Duncan Lamont in his usual role as a surly underling.

The film is a departure from most films, even for the period, in being shot in sharp-focus black-and-white.

Plotwise, in "Murder at the Gallop", Miss Marple first witnesses the apparently natural death of a wealthy man while trying to rattle a charity collection box at his home. Her suspicions aroused, she subsequently investigates in blunt fashion, and discovers the dead man's sister, also murdered. Even though the police are now involved, she continues to poke and pry; and it turns out that Miss J. T. V. Marple was a champion horsewoman in her youth.

The final uncovering of the murderer lacks the usual drama, and is arrived at through a literal process of elimination, the other suspects having themselves been murdered.

Still, "Murder at the Gallop" is generally an enjoyable, fast-paced romp.

This was one of the most successful Carry-on films. Although the setting (the late days of British rule in India) might have been thought provocative, the sheer unreality of events and deliberately self-deprecatory humour would be guaranteed to defuse any arguments over the subject.

One of the secrets of success of the Carry-on films was their mixing of "straight" acting and quotes with absurd situations. The formal dinner scene at the Residency as it is reduced to rubble by the Khasi of Kalabar's artillery is perhaps the longest and most memorable of these sequences.

The straight-acting "farcical" scenes are probably funnier than some of the more contrived comedy sequences, although the film has its share of memorably quotable one-liners.

There were remarkable performances by British comedians Roy Castle in his only Carry-on appearance, and Terry Scott, who had previously had only a cameo appearance in "Carry on Sergeant".