At Bertram's Hotel

Period settings, period costumes--Postmodern characters
Now, I have to say right off, that, even though I appreciated Geraldine McEwen's portrayal much more, the scriptwriters had her saying the most hilariously inane things--unfortunately the viewer is tempted to laugh in all the wrong places, despite her excellent performance. No one on the production staff seemed the least bit concerned with historical or literary accuracy. It makes you sigh for what could have been.

Also ironic is the appearance of perhaps an anti-clergy slant, since Miss Marple was the daughter of an Anglican vicar. Earlier we saw at least one alcoholic rector, and now we have presented to us a), a society matron in the book Nemesis changed into a murderously obsessed nun for television; and b), a character changed from the kind, gentle Canon Pennyfather in the novel of At Bertram's Hotel to a crazed Nazi war criminal masquerading as an Anglican priest.

Nor is the QUIET, efficiently run establishment of understated elegance in the novel anywhere...

Two and a half stars...
Geraldine McEwen is a wonderful actress, but the current BBC production doesn't serve her well. Everything is wonderful except the scripts, which are often ludicrous. With such wonderful material as the Marple novels, why do the screen writers deviate from them so gratuitously, often turning the plots into gibberish? Try the Joan Hickson Marple films. With no disrespect to Ms. McEwen, Ms. Hickson was the perfect Jane, and the plots of these Christie stories were not nearly so badly mauled.

All "look," no substance
Ever since season 1, I have enjoyed the cinematography of this new Jane Marple series, and the production design. The colors are eye-popping, the costumes over-the-top, the acting arch and stylized (I wonder if Ken Russell, who had a key role in an episode of Season 1, had anything to do with that). I bought Season 2 and 3 as soon as they came out on DVD, and I have to say that Season 3 has turned out to be a laughable disappointment.

The production values are still here, the series continues to provide an extra paycheck for unemployed British acting greats, but the writing has wandered away from the Christie novels and ended up in a soap opera somewhere. The dialogue is stilted and unbelievable, Miss Marple behaves more and more out of character, and the plots are changed out of all recognition, and not for the better.

In some misguided attempt to make the stories more "modern" and "interesting," the writers dream up the most ludicrous stereotyped characters -...

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