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Agatha Christie's Marple

The Moving Finger

Season 2, Episode 2, Aired Feb 12, 2006

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Poison pen letters are spread around the village of Lymstock, a village full of shameful secrets, and they don't cause much of a stir until one of the writer's victims commits suicide, leaving a note claiming that she couldn't go on any longer. But Miss Marple isn't convinced the writer has only contributed to her death by the poison-pen letter, and questions the coroner's verdict of suicide. She believes that this isn't just the work of a poison-pen, but also the work of a poisoner.moreless

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Cast & Crew

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GUEST STAR Angela Curran

Miss Ginch
GUEST STAR Rosalind Knight

Partridge
GUEST STAR Imogen Stubbs

Mona Symmington

Geraldine McEwan

Miss Jane Marpl...

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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

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As probably one of the few fans of this series who has NOT read the original novels I delight in this series, particularly in this wonderful cast.

9.9

"Superb"

By sutekh22, Dec 01, 2011

Okay first things first, I have never read the Miss Marple series, only the Hercule Poirot books. I understand many people are upset about the modernisms of these adaptations and I can\'t really comment on that aspect.

What I can comment on is how entertaining and wonderful I found this story, particularly thanks to a delightful mix of young and old actors at the top of their game.

Let\'s start with the lead. Geraldine McEwan is superb in the lead, giving Miss Marple the character of the eccentric aunt we all wish we had, and this episode in particular highlights the duality of her character.

Throughout Marple aids James D\'arcy\'s romance of Talulah Riley, which to me was as interesting a story as the murder mystery itself. Her allusions to a long lost love (presumably killed in WWI) and yet her absolute determination to live life to the fullest provide a great focus on WHY Marple is the way she is.

The story\'s other thematic approach is a challenging one. \"I find that people behave exactly as I expect them\" is something Marple tells early on. Right from the start I expected the lawyer played by Harry Enfield to have murdered her wife, and indeed for some fairly obvious motives. Yet it is to this story\'s credit that it never seems boring in spite of a fairly obvious mystery.

Throughout the story we see the truth of this, Kelly Brook\'s character is the too hot to be real girl that ultimately we (and James D\'arcy who is serving audience identification in some ways) cannot LOVE, Talulah Riley excellent as the slighty crazy but brilliant girl we often DO fall in love with (though the almost mentor role D\'Arcy\'s character starts for her morphs into a romance) and John Sessions character is so obviously a stereotyped homosexual that his presence could easily become uncomfortablely homophobic on the part of the writers.

Anyway I am ranting too much. This is simply a great piece of TV, both as a mystery and a sappy romance
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One of the better ones though not one of Christie's best works in my opinion

8.6

"Great"

By qstevie, May 03, 2006

I enjoyed this episode very much. It had just the right level of mystery, quirkiness and the stilted English mannerisms of years gone by. My only real quibble is that there isn't really that much mystery if you're used to reading and watching these things. Having said that, my partner never works out the whodunnits, so maybe I'm just jaded!

It's been a while now since this was aired in Britain, so I'm going from memory, but I liked the idea of the poison pen letters, which caused such furore, even though they would probably have been laughable by today's standards of insults. I still have problems with Geraldine McEwan, who twinkles wonderfully and is obviously a great actress, but there's something not quite spinstery enough about her.

I'm also not quite able to remove myself from the Joan Hickson version that aired so long ago. It was true to the book and didn't rely on very caricatured performances. Even so, this probably played the least with the original and was all the better for it.moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- This book is noticable for the late appearance of Miss Marple, who doesn't apear until the last quarter of the book.
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Quotes
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Notes
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- Murders
  Mona Symmington - Poisoned
  Agnes Brown - Hit over the head, then stabbed
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- The Moving Finger was split into two parts in the US and aired on July 9th and 16th.
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- Stephen Churchett, the writer for several episodes, has a cameo in this episode as a coroner. He previously played a coroner in The Murder at the Vicarage.
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