Miss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington **** (1987, Joan Hickson, Maurice Denham, Joanna David, Mona Bruce, Jean Boht, Juliette Mole, David Beames) – Classic Movie Review 9635

The agreeable 1987 TV movie Miss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington stars Joan Hickson in her ninth case as the BBC’s Miss Marple, based on Agatha Christie’s novel. Miss Marple’s friend Mrs McGillicuddy sees a murder on a train running parallel to her own.

Director Martyn Friend’s agreeably inventive 1987 TV movie Miss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington again stars Joan Hickson, who takes on her ninth case as the BBC’s Miss Marple, broadly following the plot of the novel by Agatha Christie but with several changes. Miss Marple’s friend Mrs McGillicuddy witnesses a murder in a railway carriage running parallel to her own.

Agatha Christie’s spinster sleuth Jane Marple (Hickson) tries to persuade Detective Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) and his sidekick Detective Sergeant Lake (Ian Brimble) that her friend Mrs McGillicuddy (Mona Bruce) really did witness a man murdering a woman by strangling on a neighbouring train running in the same direction while she was travelling on the 4.50 (16:50) train departing from London’s Paddington railway station, even though no body can be found.

Miss Marple thinks that the corpse has been chucked off the train at a planned location – the estate grounds of the Crackenthorpe stately home, where she sends young professional cook and housekeeper Lucy Eyelesbarrow (Jill Meager) to work as a domestic and go undercover to try to find the body. Lucy arranges an afternoon tea visit for Miss Marple and Mrs McGillicuddy.

Joan Hickson is on her best, grave form for this highly improbable but very entertaining case, with plenty of ripe suspects, teasing twists and a labyrinthine series of mysteries for her to unravel.

As usual, the BBC adaptation by T R Bowen broadly follows Mrs Christie’s original plot and is fairly faithful, but there are several significant changes.

It is a remake of the 1961 Margaret Rutherford film Murder, She Said, based on Agatha Christie’s novel 4.50 from Paddington, in which Hickson played Mrs Kidder. It is remade for the series Marple in 2004 starring Geraldine McEwan, with the title What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw! and many changes.

The 2008 French film Le crime est notre affaire, directed by Pascal Thomas, is essentially an adaptation of 4.50 from Paddington though it is named after the book Partners in Crime, and features its detective characters Tommy and Tuppence.

Michael Bakewell dramatised the novel as a single 90-minute episode for BBC Radio, first broadcast in March 1997.  June Whitfield plays Miss Marple and Susannah Harker plays Lucy Eyelesbarrow.

Also in the cast are Maurice Denham, Joanna David, Mona Bruce, Jean Boht, Juliette Mole, David Beames, Leslie Adams, Ian Brimble, Rhoda Lewis, Jill Meager, Andrew Burt, Pamela Pitchford, Christopher Haley, Bernard Brown, Robert East, John Hallam, Alan Penn, David Waller, and Will Tracey.

The cast are Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, Jill Meager as Lucy Eyelesbarrow, David Beames as Bryan Eastley, Joanna David as Emma Crackenthorpe, Maurice Denham as Luther Crackenthorpe, John Hallam as Cedric Crackenthorpe, Robert East as Alfred Crackenthorpe, Bernard Brown as Harold Crackenthorpe, Andrew Burt as Dr Quimper, David Horovitch as Detective Inspector Slack, Mona Bruce as Mrs McGillicuddy, Jean Boht as Madame Joliet, Juliette Mole, Leslie Adams, Ian Brimble, Rhoda Lewis, Jill Meager, Andrew Burt, Pamela Pitchford, Christopher Haley, Bernard Brown, John Hallam, Alan Penn, David Waller and Will Tracey.

It was first broadcast on 25 December 1987.

4.50 from Paddington was first published in November 1957 by Collins Crime Club. The US publisher changed the too British title to What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!

It is followed by Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery, the tenth in the series of 12 films.

It follows The Body in the Library, The Moving Finger, A Murder Is Announced, A Pocketful of Rye. The Murder at the Vicarage, and Sleeping Murder, At Bertram’s Hotel and Nemesis.

Jean Boht plays Madame Joliet.

Jean Boht (6 March 1932 – 12 September 2023) is most famous as Nellie Boswell in the entire seven series of Carla Lane’s TV sitcom Bread from 1986 to 1991.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,635

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