Geraldine McEwan

Geraldine: I think Marple is a sort of heightened reality; you can't really say they're like everyday life. I think Agatha Christie must have had a sense of humor, the way she places this elderly, very middle-class figure in a country village, but solving all these horrific crimes.

Geraldine: During the war, my mother used to take me to the local repertory theatre on a Monday night, and we used to get two seats for the price of one, for ninepence, in the gods. I also had speech classes at grammar school - elocution, they called it in these days - and the teacher gave me a speech by Lady Macbeth to learn, which might seem pretty inappropriate for the age of ten.

Geraldine: I'm not a workaholic but I love working, and Marple is really hard work but very stimulating.