this collection is my favourite adaptation of Agatha Christie's crime novels featuring the spinster Miss Jane Marple as amateur sleuth.
Compared to her two forerunners on TV, the slightly bland Joan Hickson of the eighties and the amusing extrovert Margaret Rutherford of the sixties, I like Geraldine McEwan's interpretation of Miss Marple the best.
This Jane Marple is eccentric and diffident, but she is also candid and wise and a realist with a supreme knowledge of human nature. These qualities combined with her old-fashioned looks as an unthreatening spinster make her a good sleuth whom suspects tend to overlook to their own detriment.
Of the 12 films this collection contains, my favourites are "Sleeping Murder" (Sophia Myles fits the leading role perfectly), "The Moving Finger" (James D'Arcy is so good-looking!), "By the Pricking of my Thumbs" (Greta Scacchi as a middle-aged, elegant Tuppence Beresford with a drinking problem is great) and "Nemesis" (pervaded by a melancholy atmospehre as Miss Marple has to uncover a secret of the past without at first knowing anything of the cimcumstances or the possible suspects. A bit strange, yet convincing).
But I have to admit, I do love the complete collection!
Based on Agatha Christie's work, they are all so comfortingly old-fashioned besides being, of course, suspenseful. Yet this adaptation also has a modern, colourful look to it, which I find refreshing and slightly unusual.
Furthermore, for me it is really a pleasure to look at the various settings these films lovingly present: the beautiful English landscape in all seasons, the great manor houses and especially the costumes and the jewellery of the actors/actresses which always suit the character perfectly.
All in all: highly recommended quality entertainment!