The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife

In my personal top ten of greatest people who ever lived, Agatha Christie appears at least three times! I've read so many of her stories and saw so many film/television adaptations based on her novels and plays, and yet the wit and creativity in her work never ceases to amaze me. The character of Parker Pyne is one I wasn't familiar with yet, and most of the individual episodes in "The Agatha Christie Hour" I hadn't watched, either, mainly because they don't feature any complex murder-mysteries (and those are - like the case with most people, I reckon - my favorite Christie tales).

After witnessing the "The Case of the Middle-Aged Woman", I can safely state this lovely piece of work also benefices from most of the brilliant Agatha Christie trademarks, including super-intelligent detectives and unforeseeable plot twists. In fact, this is a full-fledged Christie conundrum; but without murders. Admittedly I did miss the murders sorely, but what can you do?

I'm amused with the idea this is what 'romance' and 'love story' looks like in the wonderfully twisted mind of Mrs. Christie. Not sure when exactly she wrote this tale, but one can only assume it's inspired by her own experiences, namely when Agatha's first husband left her for a younger woman, and she came out of it as a much stronger and more independent person. Something rather similar overcomes the titular middle-aged woman of this story, but in the end she's a much happier lady. I'm looking forward to the next installments of "The Agatha Christie Hour", and particularly to the returns of Parker Pyne. He's a retired government employee turned detective, and moreover a meticulous planner with a fetish for statistics. Such a bizarre but fascinating character could only spawn from the mind of dear old Agatha.

I bought the First set of 2 CD's because it said the Agatha Christie Hour.

This episode, the first really stinks. I thought it was going to be a mystery but it is more of a husband and wife not connecting after so many years and the wife thinks he is cheating on her with a employee.

The husband has a business and is pushover for a pretty women that works for him. The young woman plays helpless, needs money and uses her charm to get it from her employer.

The wife goes to a agency, I think detective agency I am not sure and the man she hires sends a younger man to start taking her dancing and to dinner. He makes her feel important. He is much younger then her but he seems to really care about her.

At a nightclub the husband and wife meet. She is with the young man and the husband is with his young blond employee.

The story is interesting but was not what I expected. I watched the second episode same thing but it had more mystery.

I would say "The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife and In a Glass Darkly. deal with rich people, dancing and dinner. At least there was no swearing or sex. So I may start liking the series more--depending.

Parker Pyne stories has some interest as it has some embryonic characters that would later appear in Poirot such as Miss Lemon.

Parker Pyne is a detective of the heart, dealing with personal relationship problems.

The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife, George and Maria Packington are a well to do couple whose marriage is in trouble. George is smitten by his pretty young secretary who is using him for his money.

Maria responds to an advertisement in the personal column of the a newspaper. Mr Pyne understands what the issues are but it will cost Maria 200 guineas to enable Mr Pyne to fix things.

Maria has beauty treatment and is fixed up to have lunch with a good looking young man called Claude. He makes her feel important.

On a later occasion Maria is dancing with Claude where she bumps into her husband who is dancing with his secretary. Maria has a nonchalant attitude with her husband's indiscretions.

Of course George is jealous that his wife is attracted to a younger man and the two are reconciled.

This is a twee story, not a mystery but it shows a different side to Agatha Christie's writings.

1982 was a great year for international television. While on the big screen we watched Blade Runner and Gandhi, the TV offered us the following

1. The Compleat Beatles 2. Fanny and Alexander 3. Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl 4. The Electric Grandmother 5. I Remember Nelson 6. The Barchester Chronicles 7. The Elephant Man 8. Mozart 9. Live from the Metropolitan Opera: Der Rosenkavalier 10. Avenida Paulista 11. Gulliver in Lilliput 12. Ivanhoe 13. The Agatha Christie Hour: The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife

Gwen Watford is a great character actress, and did very fine here indeed. Put the Parker Pyne and Miss Lemon duo together with her, and you have a jolly good show. Oh yes, there's a stereotypic husband doing the mid-life crisis to the hilt and a prescribed younger man for the neglected wife. It plays out well, with the early Parker Pyne (early to Christie works) being a treat with his intelligence guided by experience approach. We get to see the precursor of the maximum-ly efficient Miss Lemon later to be girl Friday to Poirot (as yet a gleam in the writer's eye).

Great production after you get over the British sound stage thing they invariably do on TV. Costumes by whomever for Ms. Watford were well appreciated. Age-old story refreshed, I thought, with Pyne and Lemon's statistical and informed interference.