FROM BOOKS TO SERIES: MISS MARPLE

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Let's get this out of the way at the very beginning -- its a case of a "story within a story" ... and a point which I never realized until I watched a documentary (featuring historian Lucy Worsley) but we'll get into that later.

And likely, I have several mistakes in this post ... my computer is acting up something fierce today ... not sure what's going on but I do know it needs an update

And before we begin ... let's do a Death Count:  BOTH book and series have 3 deaths, but there is one additional attempted killing, but the roles have been reversed from book to series episode.

I will embed both parts of the YouTube audiobooks at the very end ... these are NOT my videos/works in ANY WAY

A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED

Now when I first saw this episode of the BBC television series .... I thought it was one of the BEST Marple stories I had seen ...

Miss Marple is actually INVOVLED, a PART OF, the murder count!!

Although, obviously, she, herself, does not die .... she is very much involved!

So the major difference I noticed with the series episode and the book, has been the OPENING ... 
Now I understand that the novel has more time to build the story (page count being the only hinderance) and the episode is limited mostly by time (its was a 2 hourde) and technology (although special effects aren't used, there's a couple other things) ...

The Opening:
In the Episode, it opens with a "News Reel" like what used to occur in movie theaters/cinemas back during and after World War 2 ... and this does occur AFTER World War 2 ... so it makes sense ...
ACCEPT ...

This does NOT actually occur in the book ... in the book, it opens with the scene which comes AFTER the newsreel of the series ....

A paper boy is delivering the morning paper ...

Does anyone these days remember newspapers being delivered by YOUTH, on a BIKE?
One of my brothers used to delivery them -- I remember waking up one morning as a kid (maybe 5 or 6 years old) and finding him siting at the top of the basement steps carefully rolling that mornings paper into a throwable roll ... he sent me back to bed - he was not happy, it had rained during the night and some of the papers had gotten damp and they all stank ...
But, the morning newspapers had to be delivered BEFORE the sun came up ... 

In this episode, as well as in other shows which feature paper boys overseas (such as Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, and All Creatures, both versions) they get their newspapers delivered AFTER sunrise - the paper boy is riding his bike while the sun is high enough in the sky to form hardly any shadow at all!!

Okay ... so that's the beginning.

In the book, it goes through HOW a person who lives in a small village/town ... where life is going so slow, where "nothing" seems to be going on ... it goes over HOW a person will generally go through the newspaper ...

Headlines, sports (perhaps) ... but EVERYONE seems to check out not the "Help Wanted" or "For Sale" ads ... but absolutely everyone, who is anyone, checks out - and often laughs at, or gossips about - the PERSONALS ...

Think of it as the "X" of their time ... the posts were short, brief , and varied ... generally not fitting into any other category ...

This time and ad appears announcing a dinner party at a local lady's home, where a murder will be committed!

The ad is nearly identical in both book and episode ...

During the dinner party, local "guests" invite themselves ... thinking this is supposed to be a party game (like the Breakout Rooms of today, only instead of solving clues to escape the room, they try to guess Who-Done-It) ...

The murder itself ... pretty close to each other.

Now in the book, Miss Jane Marple does not show up until QUARTER WAY into the story (based on the Audiobook being in 2 parts, each 4 hours long) ... and it turns out that she is related to one of the Police officers investigating the original death.

But they kept much of the same dialogue when she shows up, only they have placed her from the beginning in the hotel where the original murder victim worked ... and we find out just how smart she really is ... LOL

Now there is a word used to discribed older ladies in the UK ... one which has a totally different, not so mice meaning over here in the US ... it is only used in the BOOK - I would suppose because someone pointed out the issue ..

Old women are called "Pusssies" ... as in pussy-cat - and I assume its because it seems like so many elder ladies seem to own cats ....but - yeah - thought I'd better mention it.

Miss Marple gets much more time exploring the room where the hold-up/mrder took place ... gaining more insight from it than any of the police detectives.

Now there is an aspect which I am rather surprised to see in 1950 ... the idea of homosexuality .... the book simply takes it as a fact, doesn't make any blatant mention of it - and the series episode treats it just as well, we see them holding hands, bickering, living in the same household ... but nothing more than what is shown of any other couple.
Where this story filmed or written today, it bould be surrounded with as many pointers and bright lights as possible -- I think the way the book and series treated it is definately the better way, it "narmalizes" it, something which is simply there.
But in 1950 .... it was still ILLEGAL in most of the world to be homosexual - so Agatha Christie took a huge risk including this couple in the story!
Not giving any clues about who it is , you will have to either read, listen, or watch the story yourself!

Lots of Red Herrings in this book .... people we never see, people we see just a few times, and dead people all making appearances to keep things hopping!

While the book and series do differ a bit ... it is one of the best adaptions I've found so far ...
but then, I have only started doing this series.

And if you think the actress who plays "Lettie" looks familiar, she played Madame Hooch, the Riding Instructor, in Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone ...