Miss Marple: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1992)

This adaptation respects its material, and is overall a solid adaptation of the book. The book, I will admit isn't Christie's best, but what made it so interesting was the victim Heather Badcock, and I felt that the adaptation could have developed her more. The adaptation is also overlong but maintains interest, thanks to the way it was filmed, the pace and the acting. The adaptation is beautifully filmed, and the music is fantastic. It also moves along at a much more reasonable pace than say They Do It With Mirrors (that was good but i had a real problem with the pace). And the acting is very good, as is the case with the Joan Hickson Marple adaptations. Hickson is indeed terrific as Miss Marple, and Claire Bloom, Barry Newman and Norman Rodway are a fine supporting cast. Gwen Watford is the standout in a hilarious performance. The adaptation which further benefits from good plotting is fairly faithful save a couple of questionable liberties, and the Ella Zeilinsky murder was quite a disturbing scene for me I will admit. All in all, solid adaptation and well worth the look. 8/10 Bethany Cox

And so the fabulous BBC productions of the Miss Marple stories draw to a close... perhaps not the best of Christie's stories, but it still offers many delights as a piece of television, including the reappearance of a host of familiar characters from previous outings. It would appear this was Watford's last screen appearance before her death in 1994, and watching her recreate Dolly Bantry is therefore bittersweet. The timing, intonations and tiny details she brings to the part are delicious (as they were in The Body In The Library), and all her scenes with Hickson are quite wonderful. The story is probably a tad convoluted, yet it really is the small details that make it another triumph - Dolly and friends' reaction to the marble bathrooms; Mrs. Brogan's hilarious 'buttering' (totally authentic); Hickson's disapproval of Miss Knight's fussing. Slightly confusing that Castle's clever depiction of D.I. Craddock has now become another of Jane Marple's nephews (they weren't related in A Murder Is Announced), but it's still a joy to see him return in another cloud of cigarette smoke.So, all this and one last brilliant, expertly crafted portrayal of "the Marple woman" by Joan Hickson. Now all we need is for someone to revisit Ms. Hickson's career and issue some of the many films she appeared in on DVD.

It may not be the best of the bunch but it's still a good TV movie. A nice touch is the fact that we see several faces that we saw in Murder At The Vicarage an earlier movie of this series. There is Dolly Bantrey ( now a widow), there is the vicar ( he was not the vicar in Murder at the vicarage but seems to have made a promotion) and some more characters. This one is surely better than the movie with Liz Taylor and Angela Lansbury. This was the last one of the series and it's a shame they did not continue it with movies of some of the Miss Marple short stories. Hickson was - up till now - the best Miss Marple. Let's hope they 'll find another person just as good and still use the short stories!

I have a problem with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. Although Agatha Christie always considered her as the ideal Miss Marple (way before she even played the detective) I think she is too slow, too boring, too anything but exciting. The TV movie has nothing to do with the 1981 Angela Lansbury - version, but has everything to do with the book. In the 1981 version, lots of characters had been dropped that were in the book, but in this tv movie, every detail has been respected. But I missed the catty relationship between the two movie stars like in the 1981 film.