Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15118 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-17
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 8

DVD Description

Agatha Christie's Marple - The Complete Collection contains eight feature-length films from the hit TV murder mystery series of the same name. Geraldine McEwan stars as the super detective Miss Jane Marple in the period drama, which is set during the 1930s-1950s. Miss Marple's unassuming old lady exterior hides an excellent perception of human nature, and a razor sharp wit and intuition which she executes brilliantly to solve the most complicated crimes. Even murderers underestimate her... always at their own peril! Each episode stars different well-known TV faces (such as Catherine Tate), as Marple pursues various murderers and criminals across Britain.

Customer Reviews

NOT Complete Collection
I enjoy this program very much and trusted the title "THE COMPLETE COLLECTION" but this is not the COMPLETE series because I only found out afterwards there is a THIRD series and it is not included in this set ... so how can it be COMPLETE? I wasted my money because I already had the first series, but was willing to by the box set so I would have ALL series in one set. (Which obviously, I still don't have.) I am so disappointed.

Some of the episodes are really brilliant
First I saw an episode on TV and I have to admit that I was very lucky because it was one of the best in the series. These are full length films but some of them are fast paced enough (don't expect an action movie, though) to make you forget about time. How is it done with the old lady? With humour and marvellous acting. Where Joan Hickson is dependable and faithful to the original, Geraldine McEwan is playful and inventive. I had the feeling that theatre actors and actresses play here after extensive rehearsal. In this version, the players can express much more with their voice, gestures and facial expressions than you could ever guess after reading the script or novel. Of course, such intensive creativity tends to forget about the original story and changes the murderer, the motives and sometimes puts Miss Marple into a non-Marple story. If you are worried about such creative freedom, read the book afterwards, this way enjoying the same thing twice.

Why only four stars? As everything else you buy by the dozen (figuratively speaking) this boxed edition also contains some that are not quite the same high quality. Of course, for this 43% off that Amazon currently offers this is a very good buy. My secret hope is that by the time I finish watching this series, the Joan Hicks pack may have a similarly enticing discount.

Actually, they are not that bad!
When the first series started I was incensed at how Agatha Christie was being treated. 'The body in the library'gave rise to strong emotions. I was put out by how ridiculously the characters were portrayed and how very much like caricatures they seemed. It seemed to me that if the aim was to make fun of Christie, her stories should have been left alone and the viewers should have been left to enjoy Joan Hickson 's fine performance. I found it really hard to get used to G Mac Ewan with her fine clothes ,pointy voice and energetic stride that wasn't anything like the gentle miss Marple we love from the books. Jane Marple is supposed to look so vulnerable and frail that people overlook her shrewdness. In Mac Ewan I found a miss Marple that rather scared me. However, with time, the episodes got better and I must admit I was won over (maybe I shouldn't have been) by the glamorous sets and clothes.Yes, this again was unlike what is found in the books,hardly anyone is glamorous in a miss Marple story but it did work and the more I watched the more I enjoyed those episodes. I am almost reconciled to Mac Ewan now, not as the Marple I love but as her more streetwise younger sister maybe?