Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye *** (1985, Joan Hickson, Timothy West, Fabia Drake) – Classic Movie Review 9,622

The 1985 TV movie Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye again stars Joan Hickson, who takes on her fourth case as the BBC’s detective Miss Marple, based on the novel by Agatha Christie. 

Director Guy Slater’s 1985 TV movie Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye again stars Joan Hickson, who takes on her fourth case as the BBC’s detective Miss Marple, based on the novel A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie.

This time, the spinster sleuth Jane Marple (Hickson) is on the trail of the poison killer of a tyrannical London financier/ businessman, Rex Fortescue (Timothy West), who is found with a handful of rye in his jacket pocket. But then his young wife Adele (Stacy Dorning) and later the maid Gladys (Annette Badland), a pal of Miss Marple, bite the dust, too.

Like Agatha Christie, the killer seems to like nursery rhymes. The title and substantial parts of the plot refer to a nursery rhyme, in this case Sing a Song of Sixpence, as in several of Christie’s novels (also Hickory Dickory Dock and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe)

Tom Wilkinson plays CID Detective Inspector Neele and Jon Glover is Detective Sergeant Hay, the grumpy, baffled cops on the case.

The plot may seem contrived and improbable, at least as presented here in T R Bowen’s screenplay, but nevertheless the story is ingenious with an excellent crew of suspects. The cast bring them to life in attractive performances, and the film is plush and purringly smooth.

It is fairly faithful to the novel, though it changes the title to A Pocketful of Rye, the characters of Mrs MacKenzie, Gerald Wright and Elaine Fortescue are dumped, and the murderer meets a different fate.

It was first broadcast in two parts on 7 March and 8 March 1985.

It was remade for the fourth series of the British TV series Agatha Christie’s Marple broadcast on ITV on 6 September 2009, starring Julia McKenzie.

It follows The Body in the Library and The Moving Finger and A Murder Is Announced.

Miss Marple: Murder at the Vicarage follows in 1986.

The main cast are Joan Hickson, Peter Davison, Clive Merrison, Timothy West, Peter Davison, Tom Wilkinson, Fabia Drake, Frank Mills, Annette Badland, Beau Daniels, Jon Glover, Stacy Dorning, Frances Low, Merelina Kendall, and Selina Cadell.

Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye is directed by Guy Slater, runs 100 minutes, is made and released by BBC, is written by T R Bowen, is shot by John Walker, is produced by George Gallaccio, and is scored by Alan Blaikley and Ken Howard.

A Pocket Full of Rye first UK edition (1953).

A Pocket Full of Rye was first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 9 November 1953 at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,622

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