Miss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington

Miss Marple's best friend, Elspeth McGillicuddy (Mona Bruce), witnesses a man strangling a woman on a passing train. When nobody believes her, Miss Marple (Joan Hickson), conducts her own investigation in order to bring the culprit to justice.

Carefully constructed adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1957 mystery of the same name. It was filmed twenty-seven years earlier as MURDER SHE SAID (1962) with Margaret Rutherford playing Miss Marple. Interestingly Joan Hickson appeared in the latter film as the Crackenthorpe's housekeeper Mrs Kidder. Rutherford wasn't exactly faithful to Christie's original character, but she made the part entirely her own and she was always a joy to watch. Hickson makes a convincing Miss Marple and she is more to the letter of the book than Rutherford, but alongside each other they are still the best two actresses to have played the character. This film moves at a good pace and Hickson is most ably assisted by a first rate supporting cast including Maurice Denham as Luther Crackenthorpe, Joanna David as Emma Crackenthorpe, Jill Meager as Lucy Eyelesbarrow and John Hallam as Cedric Crackenthorpe. The only slight weakness in the film is that it sometimes tends towards the stodginess of an old drawing room play, which was quite common with so many of the BBC's dramas at this time. Still there is a good feeling for period detail and this is streets ahead of ITV's latest attempt to bring Miss Marple to television. See Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: The Body In The Library (2004).