Did anybody watch this last night? I’m a sucker for these old-fashioned cozies and can’t think of a more relaxing way to spend a Sunday night. I was a bit confused about the very last scene of Nemesis, though. Miss Marple has solved the mystery, the murderer is dead, everyone’s gone home. She’s standing there with a red rose looking like she just thought of something and that maybe she didn’t come to the right conclusion. Did I miss something? What’s she looking so perplexed about??
The original British show was a good deal longer, and each episode has been edited for PBS. This time they mangled the ending. In the original show, the amnesiac solder (Martin Waddy, who turned out to actually be Ralph Collins) met his original wife at the “Collins” gravesite. Miss Marple’s moony-eyed look was a reaction to this extraordinary event. By excising the meeting, they left Miss Marple fiddling with a rose beside a grave and looking bemused for no particular reason. I enjoy this series, but I wish they would air it in its original version. Chopping things out sometimes leaves the viewer saying “Huh?”
Ah. Thank you. I thought she’d realized that maybe someone else committed the murders after all.
I’d like to point out that my memory of Nemesis, the book, doesn’t include a darn thing about an amnesiac soldier. Am I wrong, or does this new Miss Marple series not give a fig about the original stories?
The plots have been greatly altered, and new characters added. Agatha Christie purists are not going to be pleased. But if one can view the books and the television plays as separate entities, it’s possible to enjoy this series. Geraldine McEwan is very good (though not, in my view, quite as good as Joan Hickson).
Ooh, I missed hearing about this, must get on board. I could listen to Geraldine McEwan read the phone book.