The Miss Marple Collection [DVD] [2012]

Joan Hickson is the best Miss Marple. She balances the character's toughness, humour, intelligence and vulnerability perfectly. Each episode is beautifully crafted and is pitch perfect in tone and look. Another joy is the supporting cast, who turn in some fine performances. An unsurpassed classic.

This review is for the BBC Box Set ‘The Miss Marple Collection’ 2012 release date. There are 12 DVD’s, each separately secured in its own (plastic) page, and there is a booklet detailing contents of each DVD with credits of the co-stars for each episode. The presentation is excellent. The 12 episodes were filmed (on super 16mm film) between 1982 and 1992, before the introduction of high definition and before the large screen TV’s available today. Nevertheless, on my 40” screen I have been pleasantly surprised at the image quality. It is more than acceptable and is somehow evocative of the period. (The BBC 1995 Pride and Prejudice was also filmed on Super 16mm film). The more recent Blu-Ray scans apparently used the original (cleaned-up) negative but only for the American market (Region 1). However, the 2012 release box set is in no way a poor relation.There are no Dutch subtitles as this is a ‘home grown’ release and better for it. Do check the ‘Product Details’ on the Amazon page. The sound is Mono. I have a TV sound bar that lends a more ‘spatial’ effect to the sound where birdsong in some scenes seems to emanate away from the TV. Every episode is a time capsule for a past era, where tea is made in a teapot and served in a cup and saucer. Joan Hickson as Miss Marple has received many well deserved plaudits for her portrayal, with excellent support from the various co-stars for each episode.

Promptly delivered - arrived earlier than I'd expected - excellent condition.And the best Marple of all time. After all, Agatha Christie herself did ask Joan Hickson to play the role originally.

So many reviewers nowadays make such an issue about packaging,so let's address this first. Observations are : A very sturdy box set providing individual plastic sections for each of the 12 DVD's. What I particularly applaud is that each disc is beautifully illustrated in colour with the characters appearing in that episode. So thankfully we have no stacking of discs,which I find appalling,or trying to guess the title of 1,2,3 or 4 !!!! The title of each episode is there plain to see. So for once, Very well done !!!!! Let's be fair it only takes a little common sense & consideration, which is sadly so often lacking nowadays.Now for the review that really matters. To watch Joan Hickson's portrayal of Miss Marple is an absolute joy. I find the stories to be a bonus as I can gain so much pleasure by just observing her. The future series of Marple with Geraldine McEwan & Julia McKenzie were watchable, & more than ever I can see why they had to supply their own interpretation,because the fact is alongside Joan Hickson I'm afraid they just can't compete. Agatha Christie I am sure would have been delighted to see her two famous characters so meticulously portrayed by two consummate actors in David Suchet & Joan Hickson. Enjoy the experience.

This 1984 – 1992 series by the BBC is the first complete set of Agatha Christie works transferred to the small screen (the really small, for that matter, with picture ratio 4:3), featuring adaptations of all 12 Miss Marple novels. It certainly lags in production values behind the later ITV productions, starring Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie, but it can be very valuable to Agatha Christie fans – by virtue of sticking very closely to the original plots. Of course, some streamlining of characters and events was necessary to pack all the action into a TV movie or a mini-series.In fact, while the earlier adaptations in this series are extended rather generously to two or three one-hour episodes, the producers managed to squeeze the later adaptations into 100-minute-ish films.Joan Hickson is excellent in all titles, accenting the politeness, the spinster-like manners of an old-timer, the late-Victorian-taste woman – the more surprising and punchy her explanations of the crimes are in the end. And of course, she drinks a lot of tea throughout.As for the mystery quality of the adaptations, they more-or-less copy the general awareness of Miss Marple novels. "The Murder is Announced" is arguably the greatest Marple mystery, on the level of the best Poirot ones. This three-part adaptation mirrors the quality. It is very well done, suspense- and acting-wise. The same applies to "Sleeping Murder", based on the posthumously published Christie's novel written way back in the early 1940s. Here, it is presented in two episodes.Other better-done adaptations include "The Body in the Library", "At Bertram's Hotel", "Nemesis" and "4.50 from Paddington", keeping the suspense faithful to the books, taking only minor liberties with revelations of the mystery.Other adaptations are average, "The Moving Finger" and "A Pocketful of Rye" are slightly worse than the later McEwan/McKenzie versions. "The Murder at the Vicarage", "A Caribbean Mystery" and "They Do It With Mirrors" (the latter starring Jean Simmons, probably the biggest star to be found in all this franchise) are just about what you expect.The only bigger disappointment here is the final film, "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side". It drags on and lacks a punch that was in the later Julia McKenzie ITV film or the major Hollywood production starring Liz Taylor and Geraldine Chaplin in 1980.Overall, this is a very decent (if a bit obsolete-looking) series of adaptations. Good for spending lots of free time in the company of Agatha Christie and Miss Marple.

I first watched this in 1986 and as a young teenager, fell in love with it. My favorite episode is "a murder is announced". I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have. JB

This series of the Marple classic stories is the closest to the original books I believe, and Marple is played just as you imagine her on reading the series. Some of the other attempts at filming these stories are certainly worth watching, but this is by far the most rounded series and despite its age it still comes across as a quality production; as well produced as any later effort in my opinion. Highly recommended and great value for money.