Dolly Bantry

Dolly wakes up to news that there's a dead young woman in the library at Gossington Hall. The village soon starts gossiping about her husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry.

Instead of hiding, Dolly calls Jane Marple and goes with her to the Majestic Hotel in Danemouth, where the dead girl worked. Together they help clear the colonel's name.

Dolly knows everyone in the county and isn't shy about asking questions. That makes her the perfect partner for Marple, who would rather listen.

Dolly reads detective novels and loves the idea of a real crime in her own home, even as her husband is crushed by the gossip. She's the one who insists Marple stay at the Majestic Hotel until the case is closed.

They make an odd pair: Dolly talks, asks questions and opens doors thanks to her social standing, while Marple watches. When the truth comes out, Dolly is as impressed as the police.

Years later, widowed, Dolly has sold Gossington Hall and lives in the lodge on the old estate. The new owner is movie star Marina Gregg.

At the charity party at the house, Dolly is standing next to Marina when a fan starts talking to her, and she's the only one who notices the actress's frozen stare. That detail gives Marple the clue she needed.

On ITV, Joanna Lumley plays a more elegant, witty Dolly. In The Body in the Library, she and Marple investigate the dancer's body together and follow the clues to the Majestic Hotel.

Lumley returns in season five, in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, again at Marple's side when a movie star arrives at Gossington Hall.

In ITV's fifth season, Lumley is back as Dolly in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. Gossington Hall now belongs to a movie star, and Dolly works the charity party as if she still owned the place.

When a fan drops dead from a poisoned drink, Dolly once again becomes Marple's eyes and ears among the guests.

Gwen Watford played Dolly in both BBC stories, and Joanna Lumley in both ITV ones. In the books, Dolly first appears in the stories of The Thirteen Problems (1932).