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What changed on screen
What changed on screen, title by title: 50 in total. Tap a cover to open it. Titles you haven't marked as read stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- ChangeThe Blue Geranium gets an episode
ITV turned "The Blue Geranium" into a full episode in 2010, with Julia McKenzie. The core plot stayed, with a lot added on top.
source ↗ - ChangeStories mixed together
"The Thumb Mark of St. Peter" was combined with Greenshaw's Folly in a 2013 episode, and "The Herb of Death" was worked into ITV's The Secret of Chimneys.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesMiss Marple's debut
The first story, "The Tuesday Night Club," ran in The Royal Magazine in December 1927. It was Miss Marple's first appearance, before any novel.
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- ChangeAn invented romance
The ITV version (2004) gives Miss Marple a past that isn't in the books: as a young woman, she sees off a married lover leaving for the war.
source ↗ - ChangeFrom 1930 to 1951
The book came out in 1930 and is set then. ITV moved the story to 1951, complete with an on-screen calendar, and swapped some minor characters for a French professor and his granddaughter.
source ↗ - ChangeThe BBC moved the decade too
The BBC series with Joan Hickson set every case in the 1950s. This one, aired on Christmas 1986, takes place in 1954.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesDedicated to her daughter
Christie dedicated the book to her only child, Rosalind, who was 11 when it came out. Years later, she said she no longer liked it as much.
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- ChangeA different killer couple
In the ITV version (2004), Josie Turner isn't secretly married to Mark Gaskell. She's having an affair with Adelaide Jefferson, and the two become the murderous pair.
source ↗ - ChangeA rocket instead of a plane
In the book, Conway Jefferson's family dies in a plane crash. ITV opens with a V2 rocket hitting the house during a party late in the war.
source ↗ - ChangeNo Sir Henry
Sir Henry Clithering and Inspector Slack, major figures in the book, don't appear in the ITV version. Colonel Melchett gets a bigger part in the investigation.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesJoan Hickson's debut
It was the first case of the BBC series, shown in three parts from December 26 to 28, 1984.
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- ChangeRenamed at the BBC
The BBC version (1985) is faithful but changes names: Lymstock becomes Lymston, the Symmingtons become Angela and Edward, and Aimée Griffith becomes Eryl, far meeker.
source ↗ - ChangeMiss Marple shows up sooner
In the book, she only arrives in the last quarter. The BBC brings her in much earlier and merges two maids into one character.
source ↗ - ChangeA nihilist Jerry
In the ITV version (2006), narrator Jerry Burton becomes a nihilistic young man, played by James D'Arcy, and the story moves to just after World War II.
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- Behind the scenesA story for the abbey
"Sanctuary" was written in 1954 for the Westminster Abbey restoration appeal and sold to the highest bidder.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesRead by the author
"Miss Marple Tells a Story" was a BBC radio commission, and Christie read it on air herself in 1934. It was also her last book under the Collins Crime Club imprint.
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- ChangeNo vicar, no cat
ITV (2005) cut the Harmons and their cat. Without them, Miss Marple herself figures out the lights trick by testing a frayed cord with water.
source ↗ - ChangeMitzi strikes first
In the book, the killer tries to drown Mitzi. On ITV it's the other way around: Mitzi is the one who tries to kill Miss Blacklock.
source ↗ - ChangeAn extra ending
The Edmund and Phillipa romance is gone, and the episode ends with Belle Goedler's death, which doesn't happen in the book.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesBook number 50
It was billed as Christie's 50th book, with the jacket announcing that the Queen of Crime was challenging her readers for the 50th time.
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- ChangePieces in a comedy
Murder Ahoy! (1964), Margaret Rutherford's last film, doesn't adapt any book, but it borrows pieces of this story, like the home for reforming young men.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesReal-life brothers
On the BBC (1991), the Restarick brothers were played by Jay and Christopher Villiers, brothers off screen too. Jean Simmons played Carrie Louise.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesJoan Collins on ITV
The ITV version (2010), with Julia McKenzie, cast Joan Collins as Ruth Van Rydock, the friend who sends Miss Marple to Stonygates.
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- ChangeMiss Marple does the inspector's job
On ITV (2009), she visits Mrs. MacKenzie and talks to Gerald Wright herself. In the book, Inspector Neele handles those interviews.
source ↗ - ChangeNo Miss Ramsbottom
ITV cut Rex's eccentric sister-in-law. What she reveals about the Blackbird Mine goes to a drunken Crump, the butler, and to Lance.
source ↗ - ChangeSame ending
Apart from those cuts, ITV is very faithful and keeps the final scene: Miss Marple gets home and finds Gladys's letter with the photo.
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- ChangeMiss Marple goes undercover
In the film Murder, She Said (1961), Miss Marple herself sees the train murder and takes the job at the house. In the book, the witness is Mrs. McGillicuddy and the housekeeper is Lucy.
source ↗ - ChangeAckenthorpe Hall
The film swapped Rutherford Hall for Ackenthorpe Hall, to avoid using the lead actress's surname, and shortened Crackenthorpe to Ackenthorpe.
source ↗ - ChangeLucy gets an inspector
On ITV (2004), the killer murders one fewer person, Harold survives, and Lucy falls for a new inspector, Tom Campbell (John Hannah).
source ↗ - CameoJoan Hickson before Marple
In the 1961 film, Joan Hickson plays the small role of Mrs. Kidder. More than 20 years later she became the BBC's Miss Marple and did this case again in 1987.
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- ChangeA columnist who isn't there
ITV (2010) invented Vincent Hogg, a gossip columnist and one of Marina Gregg's ex-husbands. He isn't in the book.
source ↗ - ChangeThe Nefertiti picture
On ITV, Marina's comeback is a Nefertiti movie directed by her husband, Jason Rudd. Heather Badcock's husband is written out.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe shorter title
The 1980 film with Angela Lansbury used the shorter US title, The Mirror Crack'd. Elizabeth Taylor played Marina.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesHickson's farewell
It was the last of the BBC's 12 cases, aired on December 27, 1992, with Claire Bloom as Marina Gregg.
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- ChangeThe real James Bond
On ITV (2013), writer Charlie Higson put Ian Fleming on the island and added James Bond, the American ornithologist who lent the spy his name.
source ↗ - ChangeMore voodoo
ITV played up the voodoo angle and added Mama Zogbe, who isn't in the book. Canon Prescott also gets a much bigger role.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesRafiel in reverse
The BBC shot Nemesis in 1987 and didn't get to this case until 1989. So Hickson's Jason Rafiel shows up first in the story that comes later.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesWhere Christie stayed
The BBC version was shot at the Coral Reef Hotel in Barbados, where Christie herself had stayed.
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- ChangeNazis at the hotel
On ITV (2007), the book's gang becomes a scheme to hide Nazi war criminals under stolen identities, paid for with stolen art.
source ↗ - ChangeNo Inspector Davy
Chief Inspector Davy is gone. In his place comes Inspector Larry Bird, and a maid, Jane Cooper, becomes a sort of young Miss Marple.
source ↗ - ChangeBess survives
In the book, Bess dies in a car crash. On ITV, she tries to take the blame, is forced to back down, and mother and daughter make up.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesWhich hotel?
There are two bets on the model for Bertram's: Brown's Hotel, where Christie often stayed, and Flemings in Mayfair, according to her official biographer.
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- ChangeAlmost a different story
ITV (2009) is very loose: Rafiel is just an old friend, with nothing from the Caribbean, and nearly everyone on the tour has a different name and backstory.
source ↗ - ChangeClotilde in a habit
On ITV, Clotilde is a nun, Sister Clotilde, and nephew Raymond West comes along with Miss Marple. The director was Nicolas Winding Refn, of Drive.
source ↗ - ChangeCocoa instead of milk
The ending still echoes the book: Clotilde tries to poison Miss Marple, this time with a cup of cocoa, and she doesn't drink it.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe last one she wrote
It was the last Miss Marple novel Christie wrote. Sleeping Murder came out later, but it had been written decades earlier.
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- ChangeA traveling troupe
On ITV (2006), Helen is part of the Funnybones, a touring troupe invented for the episode. Most of the suspects come from it.
source ↗ - ChangeEngaged, not married
On ITV, Gwenda is engaged rather than married, and her fiancé barely takes part. Kennedy is no longer Helen's half brother.
source ↗ - ChangeFrom 1944 to 1951
The book is set in 1944, and ITV moved it to 1951. The two-part BBC version (1987) sticks close to the plot.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesLocked in a vault
Christie wrote it during the war, afraid she might die in a bombing raid, and kept it in a bank vault. It only came out in 1976, months after her death.
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