I have avoided watching the last couple of offerings in ITV’s ‘Marple’ series for the reasons set out elsewhere on this website, but as towards zero is a real favourite with me, I had a sort of masochistic curiosity about it. Because of course, MISS MARPLE DOES NOT APPEAR IN ‘TOWARDS ZERO!!’
Why do they do it?? If Agatha Christie had wanted Miss Marple to solve this case, she would have placed her firmly in the heart of the story, but SHE DIDN’T! Instead she made this a case for Superintendent Battle, assisted (quite unofficially) by a young man called Andrew MacWhirter. Andrew is central to the original plot line, but did not feature at all in this TV version and it suffered hugely because of it, not least because it altered the romantic element of the story. And Superintendent Battle’s psychological approach to the statements of the suspects is a significant factor in the eventual unmasking of the villain and he was missed
It has to be said that the programme makers, apart from the above glaring distortion, stuck pretty well to the original plot and had they left ‘Miss Marple’ out of it, it would have been tolerable, but every time the camera panned to Geraldine McEwan, any feeling of involvement was immediately destroyed. I really wonder what Agatha Christie’s grandson Mathew Pritchard can have been thinking of to allow the programme makers to so sabotage his grandmother’s work.
I await with interest Julia McKenzie’s first outing as Miss Marple and I am trying (honestly I am!) to keep an open mind until I have seen the result.
Watch this space!
Murder Mystery Blog: Towards Zero
