Miss Marple: Nemesis

If you have read the novel, you will be just shocked at all the radical plot changes which have been made for no good reason whatever. The central characters now include nuns and a Luftwaffe pilot and a WWII-injured officer; the settings have been altered to the same degree. These changes do not make the story more interesting or more suspenseful, but rather more cluttered and silly and labored. The 1987 version stayed much closer to the book (and had more running time to play with) and was, consequently, much better. Why, why did the writers do this? Why? Well, suppose you haven't read the book or seen the 1987 version and are coming to this show cold. I suppose you could do worse with your time. But really the "melodramatic" clutter and the additional silly subplot elements that have been thrown in put this sort of on the same level of, well, a "Colombo" episode. And not one of the classic ones either.

A friend of Miss Marple's, John Rafiel, dies. He leaves Miss Marple with a message that a murder needs to be solved. His only clue - two tickets on a Daffodil coach tour. Accompanied by her nephew, the semi-famous author Raymond West, Miss Marple joins the tour. The other members of the coach party were also invited by Mr Rafiel. Some have links to Mr Rafiel, some not. What do they have in common and who was murdered?

Reasonably interesting. Decent degree of mystery though difficult to work out the murderer on your own - the clues aren't sufficient.

Engagement is limited. Here was a great opportunity to have a great rollicking romp of an episode, due to Richard E Grant playing Raymond West. He does his best to liven things up, Withnail and I style, but his screen time is limited and the sub-plots he is given don't really go anywhere.

Another interesting point from the cast/crew is Nicholas Winding Refn directing the episode. He would go on to direct feature films like Bronson, Drive and Only God Forgives.

Most interesting aspect of the cast is that this was to be Geraldine McEwan's final Miss Marple episode. In the next season she was replaced by Julia McKenzie.

If one takes the show on its own, it is not bad. In fact, it's rather good. But other than the fact that there is a tour bus involved, there is absolutely no resemblance to the book. So, if you are to watch this keep your Agatha Christie predilections behind and think of this as a completely new story, which in fact it is.

Having re-watched and re read my review of the 1987 version (or as I call it the proper one) I thought it about time I reviewed this. I stated back in 2007 that I couldn't wait to see this one, oh that hope. I had totally loved Geraldine as Miss M, there was definitely a little twinkle in the eye, she gave some great performances, A murder is announced and The Body in the Library i loved. This version of Nemesis though was not great, a 6/10 rating I think is fairly generous, calling it Nemesis was taking a bit of a liberty, the core of the story was totally lost, it was a pity a Caribbean Mystery hadn't come first to set the scene. It was a really messy script, which was held together by the quality acting and beautiful scenery. Even the wonderful Amanda Burton couldn't save the day, I find it quite an irritating version, the Will Mellor and wife storyline doesn't work, I didn't like the change of the 3 weird sisters into nuns, the whole point of the 3 sisters was the comparison between the 3 witches in Macbeth etc and turning them into 2 nuns did not work. On the plus side it was an attempt to freshen up the script to try something new, and some aspects worked OK, I will add that i think the last 10 minutes are fantastic, it's worth sticking with to get to the finale, the acting is excellent. 6/10 I think the 1987 version is just so good, this was never going to come up to the mark.

My exposure to Miss Marple is strictly through the TV and movie adaptations. I adored Joan Hickson (Agatha Christie's preferred Miss Marple), who somehow was able to pull off a mix of mildly dotty old lady, mysterious Sybil, and avenging angel, all while employing the instincts of a superb detective. The 1987 series also tried to convey a reasonably realistic picture of post-war Britain, which was fascinating.

To me, Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple strains too hard to be ingratiating (maybe it's the direction).

I've watched a couple of installments from this new Miss Marple series, and I found "Nemesis" to be the most logy and confusing of all.

The supporting performances were very good, but it is a mystery series after all and the only mystery I really cared to have solved was, When is this going to end?