Agatha Christie's Marple Series 4   Starring: Julia McKenzie ITV Studios Home Entertainment RRP: £24.99 3711532383 Certificate: 15 Available 04 January 2010

BAFTA nominated Julia McKenzie makes her debut as Agatha Christie’s spinster sleuth Miss Marple and is joined by an exceptional international cast in this hit ITV1 drama. This DVD contains four brand new, murder mysteries: A Pocket Full of Rye, Murder is Easy, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? and They Do it With Mirrors...

Julia McKenzie takes over the reigns of Miss Marple, replacing Geraldine McEwan who played the character between 2004 and 2008 in the show's first three series.

McKenzie has big boots to fill, as McEwan was such a wonderful Jane Marple, and I have to admit that I originally thought that the producers had made a terrible mistake casting McKenzie. While I know McKenzie is a fine actress, she just looked way too young in the role. However, she soon settles into the character and makes it her own.

I soon noticed that the Marple character seemed almost incidental to these episodes. McKenzie's character does take rather a backseat in these stories, and it's very easy to forget that you're watching a Miss Marple mystery.

Of the four stories here only two (They Do It with Mirrors [originally published in book form in 1952] and A Pocket Full of Rye [1953]) are actually Miss Marple stories. This won't come as a surprise to Agatha Christie fans though, as there were only twelve original stories in which Miss Marple appeared as well as a number of short stories and the previous Geraldine McEwan episodes took some artistic licence with the character.

While McKenzie is wonderful in the role of Miss Marple, I couldn't help feel that the production values were not as high as the previous series starring Geraldine McEwan. Nor where the episodes as well crafted - Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is particularly heavy doing.

I couldn't understand why in the episode They Do It With Mirrors a character throws in the "F" word for no good reason, nor why a rather pointless (even though it was mild) sex scene was casually thrown into A Pocket Full of Rye. These elements felt very out of place and are probably responsible for the collection's 15 rating. If the producers wanted to spice up the series a little then fine, but these additions are so few and far between that I couldn't work out what the point of them was.

While this series features some very impressive guest stars (including Joan Collins, Helen Baxendale, Rupert Graves, Ralf Little, Rik Mayall, Richard Briers and Samantha Bond) sadly some of them are just not up to the job. Alexi Sayle (who thankfully only appears briefly) seems to think he's appearing in Carry On Miss Marple, while Rik Mayall starts well but ends up descending into his usual silly voice and over the top acting (we know Mayall can tone it down, so why the need to be so OTT here?)

The only extra is Behind the Scenes (17 min, 30 sec). This is quite an impressive feature and has McKenzie talking about how she was worried about taking on the role and her concerns that some Christie aficionados may take issue with them taking a little artistic licence with the stories.

On balance this is an enjoyable collection of tales, despite the fact that its quite easy to forget that you're watching a Miss Marple mystery - Jane Marple seems to be a supporting character rather than the show's protagonist.

7

Darren Rea