Agatha Christie - BBC 99-06-01 The Wisdom of Miss Marple

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Harold’s Old Time Radio

Episode: Agatha Christie - BBC 99-06-01 The Wisdom of Miss Marple
Air Date: March 4, 2026
Host: Harold’s Old Time Radio

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Episode Overview

This fascinating episode of Harold’s Old Time Radio dives deep into the enduring wisdom and appeal of Agatha Christie’s beloved character, Miss Marple. Combining audio drama clips, insightful commentary from experts, narration, and actor reflection, the episode explores the literary, social, and dramatic legacy of Miss Marple. Listeners are treated to both dramatized moments from Christie’s “The Body in the Library” and an in-depth examination of how Miss Marple became an institution across books, radio, film, and television.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

The Genesis of Miss Marple

• Origin: Agatha Christie discusses how Miss Marple was born out of her pleasure in writing about observant, wise old ladies in English villages—drawing especially from Dr. Shepherd’s sister in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd."
  • “She was far more fussy and spinsterish than my grandmother ever was... she always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and was... usually proved right.” – June Whitfield (as Agatha Christie) [01:27]

The Role of Female Detectives & Christie’s Literary Strengths

• Why So Many Female Detective Writers?
  • Many early women writers were home-bound and wrote as an antidote to domestic life, but also relished the chance to exert control and justice in fiction.
  • “I think that women do have a respect for propriety, a concern for others... a determination that right should triumph over evil...” – Mary Cadogan [03:24]
• Christie’s Puzzle Mastery:
  • Celebrated for “wonderfully inventive and complicated plots” and a “keen ear for dialogue,” set within the upper-middle-class British society she knew well. – Mary Cadogan [04:50]

Characterization of Miss Marple

• Observant and Ruthless:

  • Miss Marple is both disarmingly polite and “rock hard” at the core, determined for good to triumph over evil.
  • “She has high moral standards, a determination that good will triumph over evil… remarkably observant… with strong flashes of intuition.” – Mary Cadogan [06:55]

• Village Wisdom Applied to Crime:

  • Miss Marple expertly uses village gossip and social observation to solve mysteries.
  • “After observing human nature for as long as I have... idle tittle tattle is very wrong... but it is so often true, is it not?” – Miss Marple (June Whitfield) [09:46]

Miss Marple’s Detective Technique: Logic and Empathy

• Logical Deduction:
  • Marple is unsentimental about crime, frequently a step ahead of police.
  • “A second murder? Why not? When someone has committed one murder, they don’t shrink from another, do they? Nor even from a third.” – Miss Marple (June Whitfield) [10:47]
• Immersion and “Listening at the Edges”:
  • She pieces together details almost invisibly, knitting in corners and absorbing everything.
  • “Having a room in Yew Tree Lodge made everything so much easier. I could sit in a corner... with my knitting and nobody would really be aware...” – Miss Marple (June Whitfield) [11:43]

Miss Marple on Screen and Radio: Embodiments and Interpretations

• Margaret Rutherford in the 1960s:
  • Loved by movie fans but not considered true to Christie’s description; Rutherford made the role her own.
  • “She sort of turned her version of Miss Marple into her own.” – Enid Williams (via June Whitfield) [14:05]
• Joan Hickson as the BBC Marple (1980s):
  • Considered the “definitive” Miss Marple, especially for her authenticity and seriousness.
  • “She talked a great deal about the importance of appearance... She saw Miss Marple... as watching, listening, waiting and picking up clues the police failed to spot.” – Mary Cadogan [15:37]
  • “Although most see her as the definitive Miss Marple, I still think... she doesn’t quite convey the character as Agatha Christie's actual stories...” – Mary Cadogan [17:37]

Transition to Radio and June Whitfield’s Version

• June Whitfield’s Approach:
  • Whitfield sought not to simply imitate her predecessors but to embody Marple’s “moral standards” and lightly comedic self-assurance.
  • “She had her own moral standards… to right some of the wrongs in the world.” – June Whitfield [19:38]
  • “I’m very glad that I’m on radio and not on television because I don’t think [Joan Hickson] could be bettered.” – June Whitfield [18:30]
• Radio Drama Challenges:
  • Adapting Miss Marple novels brings unique challenges—keeping Marple central and nuanced amid Christie's love of red herrings and delayed appearances.
  • “She’s too good to lose... so I try to keep Miss Marple close to the center of things all the time.” – Michael Bakewell (summary by narrator) [22:14]
• Creating Atmosphere:
  • “Miss Marple is very often knitting. And so there is somebody standing by with a pair of knitting needles, you know, making those sort of knitting noises.” – June Whitfield [24:22]

Enduring Appeal of Miss Marple & St. Mary Mead

• Why People Still Love Marple:
  • She is an “ordinary woman with limited status,” yet outsmarts police and criminals, set against the appealing “Never Never Land English village” of St. Mary Mead.
  • “People generally enjoy seeing this very ordinary... woman... always being several steps ahead... But most of all, readers respond to Miss Marple... because she does embody a sense of order and tradition.” – Mary Cadogan [25:14]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There’s nothing in the least fluffy about Miss Marple. She’s got a mind that’s as sharp as a knife and she misses nothing.” – Narrator [02:34]
• “When someone has committed one murder, they don’t shrink from another, do they? Nor even from a third.” – June Whitfield as Miss Marple [10:47]
• “I wonder if I could possibly assist you in my very humble and I'm afraid, very feminine way... Talk to people. They might say things to me that they'd never say to you.” – June Whitfield as Miss Marple [23:45]
• “Although most of us do see [Joan Hickson] as the definitive Miss Marple, I still think... she doesn’t quite convey the character as Agatha Christie's actual stories.” – Mary Cadogan [17:37]
• “I think in that sense, almost more tellingly than Joan Hickson, does she [June Whitfield] convey the character, so I feel that if I had to award marks for this, I’d probably just give her one or two more even than Joan Hickson, although I absolutely adore Joan Hickson’s portrayal.” – Mary Cadogan [21:22]

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Key Segment Timestamps

• [01:27] – Agatha Christie (via June Whitfield) describes the inspiration for Miss Marple
• [03:24] – Mary Cadogan on women in detective fiction and sense of justice
• [06:55] – Mary Cadogan analyzes Miss Marple's character traits
• [09:46] – Miss Marple's perspective on village gossip and truth
• [10:47] – Marple predicts more murders with chilling logic
• [14:05] – Reflection on Margaret Rutherford’s film portrayal
• [15:37] – Joan Hickson’s preparation and embodiment of Miss Marple
• [18:30] – June Whitfield on inheriting the Marple mantle
• [19:38] – Whitfield explains her approach to the radio role
• [22:14] – Script adaptation challenges and keeping Marple central
• [24:22] – How sound effects create atmosphere in radio drama
• [25:14] – Mary Cadogan on Miss Marple’s enduring reader appeal

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a delightfully thorough look at why Miss Marple continues to intrigue and comfort audiences nearly a century after her debut. Through a blend of dramatization, commentary, and reverent nostalgia, listeners come away with a new appreciation for Christie’s wisdom—and for the many unforgettable women who have brought Miss Marple to life.

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Transcript

[Narrator]

The sun's shining, birds are singing, and

[June Whitfield]

all feels right in the world until the season changes and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed. In fact, one in five people experience

[Narrator]

some form of depression, no matter the

[June Whitfield]

season or time of year. At the American Psychiatric association foundation, our

[Narrator]

vision is to build a mentally healthy nation for all because we want you

[June Whitfield]

to live your best life and be your best you all year round. Please visit mentallyhealthynation.org to learn more. Jeffrey Richards investigates the wisdom of Ms. Marple in the Radio Detectives.

[Narrator]

We present June Whitfield as Ms. Marple in Agatha Christie's the Body in the Library the delicate, refined and orderly music of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, which introduces BBC Radio's dramatisations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories. It perfectly reflects the world and the outlook of the canny village spinster who became Agatha Christie's own favourite among her fictional creations. It's given to very few writers to create two cult figures, let alone one in the field of detective fiction, but Dame Agatha Christie achieved this with her much loved characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. Dear Magatha recalled the origins of Miss Marple in her autobiography.

[June Whitfield]

I think it is possible that Miss Marple arose from the pleasure I had taken in portraying Dr. Shepherd's sister in the murder of Roger Ackroyd should be my favorite character in the book, an acidulated spinster full of curiosity, knowing everything, hearing everything. The complete detective service in the home. When the book was adapted as a play, one of the things that saddened me most was Caroline's removal. Instead the doctor was provided with another sister, a much younger one, a pretty girl who could supply Poirot with romantic interest. I think at that moment, though I did not know it, Miss Marple was born. She was the sort of old lady who would have been, like some of my grandmother's cronies, old ladies whom I've met in so many villages where I've gone to stay. As a girl, Miss Marple was not in any way a picture of my grandmother. She was far more fussy and spinster is than my grandmother ever was. But one thing she did have in common with her, though a cheerful person. She always expected the worst of everyone and everything and was, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right.

[Narrator]

Do you mean you want me to

[June Whitfield]

be some kind of amateur scoop?

[Narrator]

I wouldn't have thought that a former commissioner of Scotland Yard could be described as an amateur. I can tell you who would make a far better job of finding A murderer than I ever would. And who's that? You could see her from here. She's sitting down there on the terrace with her knitting. You don't mean that fluffy old dear with the dreadful hat? There's nothing in the least Fluffy about Ms. Marple. She's got a mind that's as sharp as a knife and she misses nothing. She's plumbed the depth of human iniquity and takes it all in a day's work. You're joking of course. Oh no I'm not. She can run rings round melted any day. I think I might just have a little word with her. A female detective created by a female writer why have so many women been great detective story writers? Mary Cadogan is the co author of the Lady Investigates, a study of female detectives.

[Mary Cadogan]

Some of the more recent ones are academics and professional women. Very keen minds, the sort of mind that you would imagine might well be attracted to detection. But many of the early ones were totally home based, as women were in those days. I suspect that they wrote partly as an antidote to their rather claustrophobic domesticity. And of course what greater challenge could there be than to create detective stories and, you know, detective characters? Shrewd, calculating detectives. I think also that they probably enjoyed playing God. I think that women have obviously traditionally not always had control over their own lives. They've had some control over the lives of their children, although not always perhaps as much as they would have wanted. I think that control in fiction was probably very attractive, those who had the capacity to create fiction and control in detective fiction was even more attractive. I think they were also motivated by a strong sense of justice. I think women do have a respect for propriety, a concern for others. They are the carers normally in our society and I think they have a determination that right should triumph over evil and that even the most devious and devilishly clever murderer should ultimately get his comeuppance.

[Narrator]

And what were Agatha Christie's particular strengths as a writer?

[Mary Cadogan]

She had this wonderful flair for creating puzzles and one feels that quite a lot of her stories are puzzles almost rather than the conventional whodunnit pattern. She was the mistress, I think, of wonderfully inventive and complicated plots which really do trick and tease the readers. She's a brilliant trailer of red herrings. But of course combined with this she has an extraordinary simplicity of narrative style. She is very, very easy to read. She has a keen ear for dialogue and I think that's one of her fortes. She did write mainly about the society. She was born into and the society she knew so well, which of course was the upper middle class more or less between the wars and even earlier than that British society. She conveys this so well.

[June Whitfield]

One of the little trials of living in a backwater like St. Mary Mead is that one can never hope to hang on to domestic servants for very long. Once you have taught them not to rush in with the early morning tea like a bull at a gate post and to clean the silver and to answer the door with a smile and not to forget the name of the caller, they are off in search of something more exciting. That is why for the past few years I have been taking in girls from St Faith's Orphanage, a very well run place, though sadly short of funds, giving them the best training I can and resigning myself to the mishaps.

[Mary Cadogan]

In the same way, she can convey this apparent ordinary ness of people. Many of her characters have this quality. They're natural. They seem like the sort of people you would meet, you would rub shoulders with. She describes them with great precision. She also has in these plots a wonderful sense of timing. She never really puts her foot wrong with this. I think she brings the clue or the red herring in at exactly the right moment and of course she keeps the interest going brilliantly throughout the stories.

[Narrator]

What kind of character is Miss Marple?

[Mary Cadogan]

She's combination of, on the one hand, immense politeness and good manners and on the other hand this rock hard ruthlessness. She has high moral standards, a determination that good will triumph over evil. The other thing about Jane Marple, of course, is that she's remarkably observant. She also has this aptitude for lateral thinking and like many successful criminal investigators, she has strong flashes of intuition. She has too, Miss Marple, a very direct personality and an openness. She makes people trust and confide in her. Now she can be waspy, although she's generally described by Agatha Christie as pink and white and even fluffy. So of course she can be very disarming.

[Narrator]

So Ms. Marple had the ideal qualifications for a detective. Honed to perfection by long use. She was an acute observer of people and events.

[June Whitfield]

You see, the path opposite the stile leads to Old hall and that is the way they would have taken home together.

[Narrator]

And from here she went across to the vicarage.

[June Whitfield]

Oh yes, I saw her turn the corner of the house. I suppose that the colonel had not arrived because she came back almost immediately and went down the lawn to the studio.

[Narrator]

I let Redding use it for his painting. And you didn't hear a shot, Miss Marple?

[June Whitfield]

I Didn't hear a shot then.

[Narrator]

When did you hear a shot, Miss Marple?

[June Whitfield]

I think there was a shot somewhere in the woods but quite five or ten minutes later. And as I say, out in the woods. At least I think so. Surely it can't have been.

[Narrator]

So Mrs. Protheroe went down to the studio. Then what?

[June Whitfield]

She went inside and waited. Presently Mr. Redding came along the lane from the village. He went up to the vicarage gate.

[Narrator]

And saw you?

[June Whitfield]

As a matter of fact, he didn't see me because just at that moment I was bending down trying to uproot a particularly nasty dandelion. So difficult. And then he went through the gate and down to the studio.

[Narrator]

He didn't go near the house?

[June Whitfield]

No, he went straight to the studio. Mrs. Plato came to the door to meet him and then they both went inside.

[Narrator]

And how long did they stay there?

[June Whitfield]

About ten minutes. At half past six they strolled out through the garden and along the lane towards the village. They were joined by Dr. Stone and Ms. Cram. Well, I think it must have been Miss Cram because her skirts were so short.

[Narrator]

She assembled detailed information by being an integral part of a gossip network.

[Mary Cadogan]

I wonder if there is anything between

[June Whitfield]

Reading and Letty's Protheroe. It's certainly looks like it. What do you think, Miss Marple? I shouldn't have said so myself. Quite another person I should have said.

[Narrator]

Miss Marple, don't you think that we are all much too inclined to let our tongues run away with us? Charity thinketh no evil, you know. Now inestimable harm may be done by foolish wagging of tongues in ill natured gossip.

[June Whitfield]

Dear Vicar, you are so unworldly. I'm afraid that after observing human human nature for as long as I have done, one gets not to expect much from it. I dare say that idle tittle tattle is very wrong and unkind. But it is so often true, is it not?

[Narrator]

She had a brilliant capacity for logical deduction. She employs this logic ruthlessly.

[June Whitfield]

It has been worrying me. You know how to account for her nails?

[Narrator]

I don't quite follow you.

[June Whitfield]

The dead girl's fingernails were cut quite sharp, which seemed rather strange. A girl like that usually has absolute talons. But of course, if one got torn off she might cut the others close to match. Did they find nail parings in her room, I wonder?

[Narrator]

I don't know. I'll have a word with Inspector Slack

[June Whitfield]

when he gets back. Gets back? He hasn't gone over to gossip to worry poor Arthur again, has he?

[Narrator]

No, he went off to investigate A burnt out car they found in a quarry.

[June Whitfield]

Was there someone in the car?

[Narrator]

I'm afraid so, yes.

[June Whitfield]

I expect that will be the Girl Guide who's missing. Pamela Reeves. She'd have had to pass through Danemouth to get home. I mean, it looks as though she might have seen or perhaps heard something she was not meant to see or hear. If so, she would be a source of danger to the murderer and have to be removed. A second murder? Why not? When someone has committed one murder, they don't shrink from another, do they? Nor even from a third.

[Narrator]

You don't think there'll be a third murder, surely?

[June Whitfield]

I think it's just possible. Highly probable, in fact.

[Narrator]

You frighten me, Ms. Marvel. And do you know who is going to be murdered?

[June Whitfield]

Oh, yes, I have a very good idea.

[Narrator]

Her knowledge of human nature derived in part from her total immersion in village life and her application of the lessons learned there to the wider world.

[June Whitfield]

Having a room in Yew Tree Lodge made everything so much easier. I could sit in a corner of the drawing room with my knitting and nobody would really be aware that I was taking any notice of them. There is a line in Alice in Wonderland which goes, they are all very unpleasant people. Which very accurately summed up the Fortescues. They were selfish and grasping and utterly without moral scruple. And yet I couldn't help thinking how like they were to some of the people I had known. In St. Mary Mead there was Mrs. Percival, talking 19 to the dozen for all the world. Like Mrs. Mitchinson, the bank manager's wife, who one day said far too much. And Elaine reminded me of that poor Miss Peabody who used to do so badly in the gymkhana every year, and who fell in love with the most unsuitable young curate from Woking. No, I cannot say that I warmed to the Fortescues.

[Narrator]

Long before she became a radio star, Miss Marple had become a star of the cinema. Dame Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple in four popular MGM comedy thrillers in the 1960s.

[June Whitfield]

Now, I calculate the 5 o' clock express to Brackhampton overtook my train somewhere about there.

[Mary Cadogan]

But how can you be sure?

[June Whitfield]

Well, I remember the ticket collector saying five minutes to Brackhampton couldn't have been more than a minute after the murder he came in. So that makes it six minutes before Brackhampton at, say, 30 miles an hour. So about there.

[Mary Cadogan]

But the body, Miss Marple, well, it

[June Whitfield]

seems clear that was thrown from the train between here and Brackhampton. The police found nothing? Of course not. The murderer returned before the search and disposed of the body. By Jove, the police will certainly want to investigate now. Well, according to them there is nothing to investigate.

[Mary Cadogan]

Surely in the light of our theory, a fresh search.

[June Whitfield]

But this time we will conduct our own. Yes, Mr. Swinger, I recommend a hearty breakfast tomorrow. You and I are going to take an early morning walk.

[Narrator]

Fans of Dame Margaret adored the films. Fans of Dame Agatha were less impressed. Radio producer Enid Williams.

[June Whitfield]

I know that Margaret Rutherford was not Agatha Christie's ideal Miss Marple, but I think that Margaret Rutherford was one of the greatest actresses this country has ever produced and therefore I would watch Margaret Rutherford in absolutely anything at all and with huge joy. And it didn't ever worry me that she didn't look like. Even as a child I knew Miss Marple should look like or sound like her. I just think she was such a great and consummate actress. She got away with it and in a curious fashion she sort of turned her version up Miss Marple into her own.

[Narrator]

Then in the 1980s came the definitive visual representation of Miss Marple in the BBC television series starring Joan Hickson. Why did you refer to Mrs. Bantry as poor Dolly this afternoon?

[Mary Cadogan]

Seems to be that this may well be the sort of crime that never does get resolved.

[June Whitfield]

Like the Brighton Trunk murders.

[Mary Cadogan]

That would be disaster for the Bantrys.

[June Whitfield]

People would think there's no smoke without flour.

[Mary Cadogan]

Some will even say it too. They'll be quietly shunned.

[June Whitfield]

Colonel Bantry is very sensitive. He'll turn in and in upon himself.

[Mary Cadogan]

He's probably started already. I think this could quite literally kill them.

[June Whitfield]

So you see, Sir Henry, we have got to find out the truth.

[Mary Cadogan]

One has to say that Joan Hickson must be the pretty definitive image of Miss Marple. I interviewed her actually for the radio times in 1984 before the series began, when she was making Body in the library. And she told me then that she felt a great responsibility not to destroy readers images of Ms. Marple, not to send it up in any way but to play the part utterly straight. She was a great admirer of Agatha Christie and detective fiction. She talked a great deal about the importance of appearance. I remember she was describing how she had to find the exact sort of straight set of the brown felt hat that she was wearing. And of course she chose these well cut but very well worn tweeds, very authentic to the period, sensible lace up shoes. And she saw Miss Marple, she said, not as hurtling along the action of the plot but rather as watching, listening, waiting and picking up clues that the police Experts failed to spot. The other thing that she. She does so brilliantly, of course, is to convey Miss Marple's intelligence and likeability. Now, I'm going to be slightly sacrilegious here because I'm going to say that although most of us do see her as the definitive Miss Marple, I still think that in some way she doesn't quite convey the character as Agatha Christie's actual stories. She has the appropriate intelligence, shrewdness and the occasional sharpness of manner, but she certainly doesn't seem pink and white and in any way fluffy. Although Agatha Christie often describes her as being all these things, I think neither does she really always bring over that quality of mischief which is just there under the surface.

[Narrator]

Miss Marple's radio career took off in 1993 when producer Enid Williams, who'd successfully launched Hercule Poirot on radio, turned her attention to the sleuth of St. Mary Mead and produced a dramatisation of Murder at the Vicarage.

[June Whitfield]

Michael Bakewell, our dramatiser, and I had already done quite a few Cu Puero stories when we decided it would be a nice idea to bring Miss Marple to radio. So I wanted to look for a Miss Marple who would be an enduring Miss Marple and somebody I hoped would enjoy playing her. So we made a list. I actually had at the very top of my list the person who ended up playing her. But she mightn't have been free and she mightn't have wanted to do it and so on. But we met and she agreed to do it, and I just felt she would be absolutely wonderful as Miss Marple. And of course, I'm speaking naturally about June Whitfield.

[Narrator]

When June Whitfield took on the role, she was well aware that she was following in the formidable footsteps of Margaret Rutherford and Joan Hickson.

[June Whitfield]

In the 60s, when Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple, I thought she was great. But I gather that from what I've learned since, that Agatha Christie herself never felt that Margaret Rutherford was right for the character. And when I came to do Marple on the radio, I had done her in sketches on radio, and of course, I'd always done her like that because I'd always done her as Margaret Rutherford. And I thought, I don't think so. Somehow I don't think that's going to sustain for an entire episode or a serial or something. And I think Enid Williams probably would have had a fit. You know, I said, you don't really want. You don't want me to do it like that, do you? And she said, no, I don't think so. Joan Hickson, I thought was wonderful. I thought she was it. She had it absolutely right. And I'm very glad that I'm on radio and not on television because I don't think she could be bettered.

[Narrator]

How does June Whitfield go about creating the character in purely vocal terms, really?

[June Whitfield]

When I came to do it, I based my Marple on the fact that she is always going into people's houses, you know, through the French windows or something, totally uninvited and saying, I hope I'm not intruding. So that was really what I based my Miss Marple on. She. She had her own moral standards of the way to behave and what was right and what was wrong. And probably that was what she set out to do to. To right some of the wrongs in the world. Will you allow me to give you a little advice? It is most unwise of you to continue. Continue to use your maiden name in the village. What on earth do you mean? In a short time, you and your husband may need all the help you can get. It has amused you both, I dare say, to pretend that you were not married. It kept the old fogies away. Nevertheless, old fogies do have their uses. How did you know we were married? Did you check at Somerset House? Somerset House? Oh, no, but it was quite easy to guess. Everything you know gets around in a village. The kind of quarrels you have, typical of the early days of marriage. You can only really get under anybody's skin if you are married to them. When there is no legal bond, people have to keep assuring themselves that they're happy. But what made you say that? Very soon we'd need all the help we can get because any minute now your husband may be arrested for murder.

[Narrator]

With eight productions to date and more in the pipeline, how does Marple expert Mary Cadogan rate June Whitfield's Miss Marple?

[Mary Cadogan]

Of course, with this wonderfully flexible radio voice and experience of radio. She does suggest these other aspects of Miss Marple. I think she. She does give you this feeling that she, you know, she can flutter and flatter and dither when she wants to. She also gives you this feeling that people meet her and think that, you know, she's a fluffy pink and white spinster with her woolen shawls and so on. She also brings out, I think, Miss Marple's mischievous touches brilliantly. I think in that sense, almost more tellingly than Joan Hickson, does she convey the character so I feel that if I had to award Marx for this, I'd probably just give her one or two, more even than Joan Hickson, although I absolutely adore Joan Hickson's portrayal.

[Narrator]

The dramatizations are the work of Michael Bakewell. Do they present the same challenges to the dramatiser as the Poirot novels which he also adapted for the radio? They're the same generic Christie challenges, except their worlds are so completely different that one can make it a great use of Miss Marple. One can talk about her memories of her childhood and all these kind of marvellous old fashioned values that she comes to sum up the. The difficulty with some of them is that of course, they were written much later on, some of them anyway, in. In Agatha Christie's career and her ability to cope with the red herrings, I think rather declined. So that in a book like Nemesis, I was very hard put to conceal the identity of the murderer up to the last possible moment. Again, one has the problem with Miss Marple that she tends not to be quite frequently in the main body of the story that she's invited in, or she drops in casually and kind of sorts the whole thing out. This again I've tended to move away from because she's too good to lose, particularly as played by Jude Whitfield. She's too good to lose. And so that I try and keep Miss Marple fairly close to the centre of things all the time, really, by people going back and telling her what's going on, or the extraordinary friendship she generally manages to strike up with the various police inspectors of her acquaintance. And all this helps to kind of, I think, give the story a proper Miss Marple quality rather than just sounding like a murder mystery with bits of Miss Marple headed on.

[June Whitfield]

I wonder if I could possibly assist you in my very humble and I'm afraid, very feminine way.

[Narrator]

Assist me?

[June Whitfield]

Talk to people. They might say things to me that they'd never say to you. There is a Miss Ramsbottom here, I believe, who is interested in foreign missions.

[Narrator]

You may have something there. I can't say that I've had much success with the lady.

[June Whitfield]

It is very kind of you, Inspector. This is such a wicked matter and the wicked should not go unpunished.

[Narrator]

The creation of atmosphere in radio drama depends a good deal on the use of sound effects. June Whitfield.

[June Whitfield]

When you're reading a script, you. You have the script either in your hand or on a table or whatever, and there are sound effects people who make all the appropriate noises. Miss Marple is very often knitting. And so there is somebody standing by with a pair of knitting needles, you know, making those sort of knitting noises. And of course, doors opening and shutting and telephones ringing and cups of tea. There are permanently cups of tea. And so that you don't have to manage a cup and a saucer and a script at the same time, there is always somebody there to do all the necessary.

[Narrator]

It's nearly 70 years since Mr. Marple made her fictional debut in Murder at the Vicarage, and she's still as alive and alert as ever. What explains the enduring appeal of the stories? Mary Cadogan?

[Mary Cadogan]

I think people generally enjoy seeing this very ordinary, on her own woman with limited status, limited financial means, always being several steps ahead of the professional police investigators and, of course, of the criminal. I think there's something else that's really, really going from Ms. Marvel, though, which is, of course, this wonderful village setting. It has this resilient appeal, this village of St. Mary Mead, which is the. The archetypal, possibly Never Never Land English village, but the sort of village that everybody likes to think does exist. At the same time, they're very intrigued to find evil amongst the chintzes, the tea parties, the fates and the flower shows. And, of course, Miss Marple is a great one for saying that one does see so much evil in a village. Most of all, I think perhaps readers respond to Miss Marple, though, because she does embody a sense of order and tradition, I think, especially now, with so many social and individual values seem to be under threat. This is very, very attractive to people.

[June Whitfield]

I have always loved the time when, first thing in the morning, my waking dreams begin to merge with the sounds of ordinary reality. The dawn chorus in the garden, the clink of milk bottles on the doorstep, and, if one is fortunate, the rattle of curtains on the landing, telling of the approach of the maid with a cup of tea. So it came as quite a shock to my old friend Dolly Bantry, when instead of these pleasant sounds, she was rudely awakened by a frantic banging on her bedroom door. Oh, ma'.

[Mary Cadogan]

Am.

[June Whitfield]

Ma', Am, there's a body in the library.

[Narrator]

In Agatha Christie's the Body in the Library, Miss Marple was played by June Whitfield, Colonel Melchert, Richard Todd, Dolly Bantry, Pauline Jameson, Colonel Bantry, Jack Watling. The Body in the Library was dramatized for radio by Michael Bakewell and directed by Enid Williams.

[Mary Cadogan]

The Radio Detectives were written and presented

[June Whitfield]

by Professor Jeffrey Richards. The readers were Tracy Ann Oberman and Owen Oakeshott, and the producer was Helen Williams.