FROM BOOK TO SERIES: YUP ANOTHER ONE

So the second episode of "Agatha Christie's Miss Marple" was on our local PBS station yesterday ... and it is actually a rebranding of the "Marple" series, which starred Geraldine McEwan ... my second favorite Miss Jane Marple (the most favorite being Margaret Rutheford, she was the perfect "aunt" if you ask me) ... I feel Ms. McEwan simply fit the part so well, she played her a little off center withou making her a total nut job, 

But I have begun to listen to audio books at night on YouTube ... from various pages/channels but they are all UNABRIDGED, which means they are in the original words of the author, nothing added, nothing taken out, "world without end" so to speak ...

And while there are SOME changes which can be expected turning a book which will take at least 7 hours reading time (if you do it in one go, in one sitting, if you can do such a thing) into a one hour show ... there are simply some things which should NOT be changed ...

Such as the time of year ... in the show, there is no snow on the ground - and even though St Mary's Mead is a made up little village, one would expect them to have snow, most of the UK gets snow by Christmas I'm pretty sure .... but not a flake exists.  Why do I say Christmas?
Because in the novel it very clearly says that Mrs. Elspeth McGuillicuddy shows up at Jane's with a load of Christmas shopping she had done before boarding the train to the closest station to St, Mary's Mead.

In the show, it opens with the death of Mrs. Crackenthorpe ... I don't know why thugh - it doesn't really do much for the story ... in fact, it enters into "fact" things which are later found to be unknown at the time, but are discussed later on ... its a very strange scene and totallyNOT in the book ... it should have been cut out.

In the book, Elspeth arrives at Jane's all upset because she saw a murder - as one would expect - so Jane feeds her supper where the subject is forbidden to be spoke of, but afterwards she gives Elspeth a glass of homemade wine (not your typical grape juice and sugar variety either) and they decusss EVERY aspect of what Elspeth saw on the train.

I wish they had kept THIS in the show instead of inserting the other bit ... this was much more important, but then Elspeh would have been a larger part of the story, and I don't think that was what the director/BBC really wanted at the time.  

In the book, Elspeth seemed like just an old friend of Jane's who knew Jane would look into things and just wanted it to be known she wasn't seeing things as the train preople thought she was.
In the show, she seemed to be "gotta find it in the newspapers" to suddenly being "yeah, whatever" ... we won't see her until the end of the story now.
But then we don't see her until the end of the novel either.

Enter Lucy ... she is a very bright educated woman who upon graduating from college, decided to enter into service - not military service, rather taking care of people's houses - like a maid, only more so ... but then you wouldn't know this unless you read the book ...
It is completely overlooked in the show- and I think its an important part ... all we know from the show is that Jane pops in unannounced at Lucy's place ... where apparently Lord Montbatten is also ... and she is intrigued at the chance to find a body.
About Lord Montebatten ... he was supposed to have been the favorite uncle of King Charles 3rd, but was killed by an IRA bomb on his boat ... he is still considered a hero over there I guess ...here's the link to his wikipedia page:
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma - Wikipedia

Oh - he is NO mentioned in the book, btw ... not sure why they put him in the show.

During the show, it seems as if Lucy is simply out for a walk when she find some clues to where the body left the mysterious train ,.. and Lucy takes boht the compact and the ENTIRE piece of fur she found on the side of the rail embankment.
In the book - she was only supposed to take HALF the fur, and she found it while looking for a golf ball in the long grass which grew on the embankment ... 
My parents used to play golf when we were kids, my father did for quite a while as well after my mother passed, and he passed the love of the sport onto a couple of my brothers and my oldest daughter ... so I know some thing about golf.
It is near impossible to play with a coat on - even a windbreaker can be uncomforatable with the way you need to twist your body to hit the ball ... so I would think that the weather would have to have warmed up by this time ...
I'm going to guess somewhere around a month or 2 after the murder ... so either January or February ... I do not know the weather in the UK but I'm going to guess that it has to be maybe in the 40F-50F range?
That's still light coat range for the most part .... maybe a woolen sweater.

In both book and show, Jane stays at the local village to the estate where Lucy is employed ... in the book, it is a friend ... in the show its a police officer who grew up in St.Mary's Mead ... 
Also in the show, Jane is shown reading a book (not mentioned at all in the book, but an interesting side note) called "Woman in Darkness" or something like that ... I have not found anything about it, if anyone knows anything please comment on it ... I don't know if I want to read it, but I'm interested in what its about.

While all the Crackenthropes are characters in the series, most of them are there just for filler ... in the show, there are little quirks given to each..

Such as a lisp, which gets made fun of by a brother-in-law ... a whinny cry baby .... a brother who thinks he's god's gift to women ... etc.
While in the book, the FATHER is served up as penny-pinching, judgmental, and a bit of a wretch ... leaving Lucy to wonder if she had just been propositioned ...

However, the book and show focus in on 2 main characters from the family ,.. and if I tell you, I will spoil the whole thing ... 

So let's get to the end - when we find out who did it

There are some pretty major plot changes here ... on the show it takes place in a train - Jane on one, Elspeth on another with the police friend of Jane's ....
In the book, it happens in the parlor/dining area of the Crackenthorpe home and Elspeth walks in ...

Either way Elspeth sees the killer from behind and exclaims "Tha;s Him!!!!"
In the book, both trains get the emergency stop cord pulled and an arrest is made ... the end, kind of
In the book, Jane explains everything to the police cheif who  then ge's a confession from the killer and he is taken away. Elspeth admits that she never really saw the killer's face, so she would never have been able to testify against him.

And I think that's the real difference ...
Where the show is very much Do the Crime, Do the Time ...
the book is more, think things through before you give in

Okay ... now to the biggest spoilers ... if you don't want to know stop reading now.

SPOILER ALERT

In the show - the time is taken to explain WHY the lady was killed ...

You see, she was really the doctor's wife - who refused to give him a divorce because she was Catholic (think Henry 8th) and if she hadn't concented to the divorce then it would have been dragged throu the newspapers and the Crackenthorpe father would never have allowed him to marry his daughter.

But this doesn't seem to make much sense because according to Grandfather Crackenthorpe, the wealth of the family was to pass over Father Crackenhorpe, to his oldest son, then to his heir - which apparently no one knew about until the mother of Alexander's friend shows up and it turns out that the firend is actually the heir ... but no one finds that out for quite some time ...

Anyhow ... for having just found out that the doctor only wanted her for the money ... Miss Crackenthorpe seems to be handling it pretty well.  

Now that I know the way the story was supposed to go .. I find the show kind of disappointing ...

Kind of like when you watch Wizard of Oz and then read the book ... you will never look at the Scarecrow the same way again .. the perv.