This time, I take a look at two examples of BBC Radio’s classic series starring June Whitfield as Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.
Miss Marple – At Bertram’s Hotel
I love Agatha Christie’s books, but I used to have problem with Miss Marple. Something about a lady of senior years who earwigs conversations that seemed a little creepy to me. The short stories I read didn’t exactly endear me to the character, either. Then I stumbled upon a repeat of this five-part serial on BBC Radio 4 whilst driving home one night and found myself getting into the story. I later learned this was the second episode of a five-part serial.
Although intrigued by the mystery surrounding the doddery Canon Pennyfather, and the amnesia he suffers after setting off from the hotel of the title one evening, I had forgotten all about it by the next day. That might have been the end of my association with Jane Marple but, two nights, later I was driving home around the same time and happened to catch most of episode four – by which point the police are investigating the Canon’s disappearance. I also heard a host of familiar voices (I seem to have a pretty good ear for voices) including Maurice Denham, Fredrick Jaeger and Geoffrey Bayldon. Fully drawn in, I went home and listened to the story from the beginning on BBC Sounds.
The serialised plays star June Whitfield (Terry and June, Absolutely Fabulous and many a Carry On) as one of literature’s most famous creations, and the veteran actress absolutely nails it. Whitfield is so completely the Miss Marple of your imagination (though not mine because, as we have established, the Jane Marple of my imagination was a decidedly creepy old girl). Occasionally reticent, slightly bumbling, demure and just about the fiercest intellect in any room she finds herself. Understated in some ways, but in others a fireball of dead-pan wit and ingenuity. Whitfield brings out all of these essential details, and a lot more too.
This is a mystery story, so there’s a lot of characters that come and go, which can be confusing if you’re crashing about with dishes and plates in the washing-up bowl whilst it plays in the background. Best enjoyed with a glass of wine and your feet up, it’s exactly the sort of radio drama your Gran would listen to, and none the worse for it.
I soon found there was a lot more to enjoy and quickly selected another five-part serial.
Mysteries, twists and chills.
A collection of ten short stories of mystery, spine-chilling accounts and one or two few twists in the tale. Buy or PREVIEW
Miss Marple – A Caribbean Mystery
This time, the lady with the pearl white hair is on an extended vacation to a village in the Caribbean, along with a raft of characters – each with their own secrets.
Major Pullgrove is one of those interminable old duffers who lure unsuspecting innocents into sharing a pot of tea with him, before bombarding them with a series of anecdotes and tales peppered with much assumption, ignorance, and innuendo. Miss Marple rather likes him, but is only half listening when he offers to show her a photograph kept in his wallet – the photograph of a murderer.
Before the Major can show the picture, he sees somebody approaching – apparently behind Miss Marple – and immediately puts the wallet away. The next day, the old boy is found dead in his room following an accidental overdose. Furthermore, his housekeeper claims to have never seen the medication before, not until the day the Major died. Miss Marple suspects foul play. When the the housekeeper also dies suddenly, something is very clearly afoot.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story, Agatha Christie’s mystery will keep you guessing until the very end (unless you’re rather good at spotting the culprit, unlike me).
As with Bertram’s Hotel, there’s a fleet of characters played by a well formed-cast. The suspense builds slowly, aided by convincing sound design and a first rate adaptation of Christie’s story by Michael Bakewell.
The story is in five 30-minute episodes. You may enjoy spacing out the five installments, as I did with At Bertram’s Hotel (albeit unintentionally), but I found this easier to digest in two sittings of roughly an hour and ten minutes (Coincidentally, the later adaptations in this series of Miss Marple are told over longer episodes, with fewer individual installments).
If you enjoy these dramatisations, you’ll find plenty to explore. June Whitfield starred in every adaption of the Agatha Christie novels broadcast on BBC Radio from 1993 to 2001 (The Murder at the Vicarage, A Pocket Full of Rye, At Bertram’s Hotel, 4:50 from Paddington, A Caribbean Mystery, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, Nemesis, The Body in the Library, A Murder Is Announced, The Moving Finger, They Do It with Mirrors, and Sleeping Murder). There was a 24-CD complete box set released in 2010, later issued by AudioGo in 2011. Whitfield also starred in three short-story adaptations, Miss Marple’s Final Cases, dramatised by Joy Wilkinson, released in 2015 and subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio as part of the Whodunnits? collection.
I’m now such a big fan of Miss Marple, I read 4:50 from Paddington and They Do It with Mirrors before listening to the audios. I have yet to listen to the dramatisations of The Moving Finger and A Murder Is Announced, and I may read the books first.
June Whitfield made me a fan of Miss Marple. That’s quite a feat, I can tell you. If you listen to these audios, you’ll discover the reason is certainly no mystery.
Digital set available on Amazon, Audible and some from the series are on BBC Sounds (UK only). CD box sets were still available at time of writing.
Pictures accompanying the main feature are for illustrative purposes only. No copyright is claimed.
Text: Martin Gregory 2026 copyright
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