While I agree that Joan Hickson was the definitive Jane Marple, I quite liked Geraldine McEwan's portrayal too. I just think the Marple production was an embarrassment to her, the author and a good number of the various guest cast. I do not blame my disappointment in the Marple series on the lead actress in any way. She was as good as she could be. Perhaps she graciously bowed out to avoid any further tarnish to her personal legacy as an actress. With Marple, maybe the aim was to repackage Christie to an American audience in a kind of Disney-fied version with plenty of British caricatures. Why bother sticking faithfully to the source material when you're only trying to milk it for money? Just comb through all the Christie stories and use Jane Marple as a sort of generic Jimminy Cricket to guide the viewers through each re-telling. No need to develop Tommy and Tuppence or to allow the one-off novels to stand alone when you can shoehorn good old Jane into the plot.
