Marple: A Pocket Full of Rye (2008) (TV)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Charles Palmer

Writers:

Agatha Christie (novel)
Kevin Elyot (screenplay)

Release Date:

5 July 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

When Rex Fortescue dies while sitting at his desk in the City, it's determined that he was in fact poisoned...

Plot Keywords:

Miss Marple | Character Name In Title

Cast

Julia McKenzie	...	Miss Marple
Rose Heiney	...	Gladys
Laura Haddock	...	Miss Grosvenor
Kenneth Cranham	...	Rex Fortescue (as Ken Cranham)
Thea Collings	...	Tilly
Lucy Cohu	...	Pat Fortescue
Rupert Graves	...	Lance Fortescue
Matthew Macfadyen	...	Inspector Neele
Edward Tudor-Pole	...	Professor Bernsdorrf (as Edward Tudor Pole)
Ralf Little	...	Sergeant Pickford
Helen Baxendale	...	Mary Dove
Ken Campbell	...	Crump
Anna Madeley	...	Adele Fortescue
Joseph Beattie	...	Vivian Dubois
Wendy Richard	...	Mrs Crump

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie Marple: A Pocket Full of Rye (UK) (complete title)
Agatha Christie: Marple - A Pocket Full of Rye (Australia)
Cem Gramas de Centeio (Brazil) [pt]
Miss Marple: Une poignée de seigle (France) [fr]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Englefield House, Theale, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

ITV Studios

Trivia:

The last TV role of Wendy Richard who died before transmission in the UK.

Movie Connections:

Version of Tayna chyornykh drozdov (1983)

A new Miss Marple takes over from Geraldine McEwan...

Actually, I pictured an older woman as Miss Marple, but JULIA McKENZIE does nicely in the role of the sly sleuth who's always one step ahead of the detective on the case. She has a sympathetic, intelligent look that suits the role.

A POCKET FULL OF RYE is a nifty Agatha Christie story--always with those improbabilities lurking around every corner but cleverly disguised as satisfying enough to pass inspection. The use of the nursery rhyme theme is something Christie has done before, but seldom better than here. The revelation of the murderer, however, came as less than a surprise to me since the murderer, in this case, is the most logical suspect.

Well acted and staged, very faithful to the novel, it's a pleasure to watch. RUPERT GRAVES does a good job as one of the sons, as do the other British players with whom I'm unfamiliar.

Hopefully, this indicates the new series will stick more faithfully to the original--even though I see from the trailer that MURDER IS EASY has been turned into a Miss Marple story when she wasn't in the book at all. And that happens to be one of my favorite Marple stories.