- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Alison Graham
Surely that can’t be Nicholas “Just a Minute” Parsons, dressed as a priest, creeping through the London fog at the start of another Miss Marple mystery? Yes it is, though he doesn’t last long; he’s coshed on the head and murdered, minutes after taking the final confession of a dying woman who slips him a bit of paper. Without hesitation, repetition or deviation.
ITV have played fast and loose with this adaptation as Miss Marple wasn’t in Christie’s original 1961 novel, The Pale Horse. And it’s a barmy story, as mad as a box of frogs and possibly a box of snakes, too.
Miss Marple (Julia McKenzie), a friend of the deceased cleric, decides to join the hunt for the killer and arrives at the Pale Horse Inn, which holds the key to the mystery.
Everyone goes out of their way to attract suspicion, including the pub’s owner (played by the splendid Pauline Collins) and its ragbag of weirdo guests, the usual Christie bunch of shifty toffs, scholars and lower-middle-class domestics. What follows is a weird mishmash of murder and Aleister Crowley-lite witchcraft.
About this programme
The sleuth investigates the murder of her old friend Father Gorman, using a list of names sent by the priest moments before his death to bring the guilty party to justice. Following a trail of clues to London, Marple is drawn to the Pale Horse Inn - where she discovers a sinister world of occult practices. Drama, starring Julia McKenzie in the title role, with Lynda Baron, Pauline Collins, Nicholas Parsons and Neil Pearson.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Miss Marple
- Julia McKenzie
- Father Gorman
- Nicholas Parsons
- Mrs Coppins
- Lynda Baron
- Mrs Davis
- Elizabeth Rider
- Paul Osbourne
- JJ Feild
- Bertie
- Jodie Hay
- Dr Kerrigan
- Jason Merrells
- Inspector Lejeune
- Neil Pearson
- Mark Easterbrook
- Jonathan Cake
- Mr Venables
- Nigel Planer
- Bella
- Jenny Galloway
- Sybil Stamfordis
- Susan Lynch
- Thyrza Grey
- Pauline Collins
- Captain Cottam
- Tom Ward
- Lydia Harsnet
- Sarah Alexander
- Kanga
- Holly Valance
- Ginger Corrigan
- Amy Manson
- Chief Mummer
- Mike Shepherd
- Goody Carne
- Holly Willoughby
- Thomasina Tuckerton
- Julia Molony
- Bradley
- Bill Paterson
Crew
- Director
- Andy Hay
- Executive Producer
- Rebecca Eaton
- Executive Producer
- Mathew Prichard
- Executive Producer
- Mary Durkan
- Executive Producer
- Michele Buck
- Executive Producer
- Damien Timmer
- Producer
- Matthew Hamilton
- Producer
- Jennie Scanlon
- Series Producer
- Karen Thrussell
- Writer
- Russell Lewis
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