Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

For those who have read the book as it's almost totally different. Georgia Moffett and Sean Biggerstaff do a decent job as the main characters as do the rest of the cast. It was , however, a very strange part for the excellent Warren Clarke.

On occasions I thought I was watching a comedy and this was in scenes which were supposed to be a bit nasty.

I understand that it was done a lot better in 1980.

Not all the recent Marple adaptations are bad or disappointing, Pocket Full of Rye, The Blue Geranium and The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side(I'd go further to say this one especially was the best version of the book) were excellent and Murder is Announced and Moving Finger were surprisingly good too. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is not as bad as Nemesis, Sittaford Mystery and At Betram's Hotel, but for me it is one of the dullest and more disappointing entries to the series.

Is it bad as an adaptation? Yes it is really. The book was a compelling enough read without being definitive, the story and characters were interesting in the book, but the adaptation does a lot of alterations in the sense that the plot is one big rambling, illogical mess with a very unsatisfying and somewhat convoluted conclusion and the characters(more cardboard cut-outs than characters) I felt nothing for. The pacing is also very sluggish and the dialogue is weak, some of it is among the weakest I've heard in a Christie adaptation actually.

When it comes to the acting, only Julia McKenzie stands out properly. She is terrific as Miss Marple, with a wisdom and charm that makes you warm to her immediately. Georgia Moffett is decent too as is Sean Biggerstaff, but actors such as Richard Briers are given next to nothing to work with which is shameful in my opinion, Rik Mayall has never looked and acted as bored as he is here and this is one of those rarities where I didn't like Samantha Bond or Warren Clarke either. Bond has a very uninteresting character with some poor dialogue and she manages to be both flaccid and shrill at the same time. Clarke suffers from pretty much the same problems, and his shouting did get tiresome after a while. The worst of the performances comes from Freddie Fox who is really quite awful.

Despite all these outweighing criticisms, there is some good, aside from McKenzie. The production values are wonderful, with great photography and beautiful and authentic scenery and costumes. The music is both beautiful and haunting, and the direction also has flashes of brilliance. But really, this could and should have been much better than it was. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Probably one of the worst adaptations of an Agatha Christie work if not the very worst. Apart from the general story there are just too many changes to the original book, too many characters added that simply don't exist, too many characters removed and too many plot changes to what should be one of the cleverest Christie stories. Adding Marple was a waste of time. This version is made worse by some appalling acting from usually gifted performers and is made to look very 10th rate compared to far superior and much truer 2022 version. The plot twist at the end is just complete nonsense to go with what is a complete load of nonsense.

I struggle a little with this one, as it's one of the novels I really like, it's a book that draws you in, builds the characters and has a really satisfying conclusion.

Bobby Attfield hears a dying mans last words while out walking, 'Why didn't they ask Evans?' With the help of friend Frankie Derwent and later Jane Marple's the lead takes them to the family home of the dysfunctional Savages, as they try to uncover the cryptic message and uncover dark secrets.

I'm a really easy Agatha Christie fan to please, it doesn't take a huge deal to make me happy, this one fails pretty much, the characters are almost made into caricatures, they're all a little bit over the top and unbelievable. Apart from Miss Marple and Bobby Attfield most of the others are just a bit too much.

There are some nice elements to this story, Julia McKenzie drives the story, she literally is too good for the material and script she's given. Georgia Moffett and Sean Biggerstaff both give fairly good performances. It looks really nice, there is some gorgeous filming, the music also is brilliant, it's really melodic.

For the first time in a Marple I actually find some of the acting a bit weak, I have always loved both Samantha Bond and Warren Clarke, but both are below par, Hannah Murray is either poor or dreadfully written, I can't distinguish, but Freddie Fox is abysmal, he looks like he's just going through the motions. Some of the dialogue is quite dull and uninteresting.

The ending verges on Melodrama, it's like something you'd expect an am dram group to put on, it just didn't work.

I've watched it a few times, on occasion I quite like it, but in comparison to others in the series it is the ugly duckling. 5/10

I have an idea that this whole story has been drastically changed from the original Agatha Christie story because it's so totally absurd from start to finish, with a host of unbelievable characters and Miss Marple thrown into the mix for the sake of all the changes in the plotting.

WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS? never makes real sense of any plot development and why or how Miss Marple is able to deduce all that she does based on the flimsiest of clues while knitting away as though her mind is on anything but solving a murder, is the real mystery.

Again, JULIA McKENZIE does a nice job as the rather inquisitive old lady but the plot is so full of red herrings and suspicions pointed at the wrong people that it's really no fun for the mystery fan to even try deciphering the truth. The final scene is so far fetched, it has to rank as one of the most unrealistic and melodramatic endings ever shown in a Christie tale.

It appears that the writer has decided to make something very exotic out of the whole tale and whatever remains of the original is probably well hidden.