The 50s setting is effortlessly done, right down to the genteel faded chintz of Miss Marple's "sitting room, Cherry dear, not lounge". Angela Lansbury made a great Miss M and I wish she'd reprised her role. The story is streamlined and told well, with characters filling each other in on background (in the book it was all dug up by Miss M from old movie magazines). Don't watch the terrible Evil Under the Sun, whose makers must have thought Christie+hasbeen stars+witty insults = box-office smash. Mirror's makers have taken the same formula, but the stars do a good job, and (this is the magic ingredient) the witty insults are actually witty. (He takes his job seriously! So did Attila the Hun!) However, the reasons why X killed Y are both clunkily telegraphed, and muffed in the revelation. Christie's own wartime (both world wars) dispensary and nursing experience is given to Miss Marple - and it is odd to see Miss M smoking!
By the way, Dermot asks Fenn what "the N" in his name stands for, not "The End"! Dermot is not that thick.
By the way, Dermot asks Fenn what "the N" in his name stands for, not "The End"! Dermot is not that thick.