Miss Marple: Nemesis *** (1987, Joan Hickson, Anna Cropper, Margaret Tyzack, Valerie Lush, Helen Cherry, John Horsley, Peter Tilbury, Frank Gatliff) – Classic Movie Review 9,632

The inventive 1987 TV movie Miss Marple: Nemesis again stars Joan Hickson, who investigates her eighth case as the BBC’s Miss Marple, based on the novel by Agatha Christie. Unusually for this faithful series, it deviates significantly from Christie’s plot.

Director David Tucker’s inventive 1987 TV movie Miss Marple: Nemesis again stars Joan Hickson, who takes on her eighth case as the BBC’s Miss Marple, based on the novel by Agatha Christie. Unusually for this faithful series, it deviates significantly from Christie’s plot.

A letter from a dead friend sends Jane Marple on a journey around England. She receives a letter from the solicitors of the recently deceased millionaire Jason Rafiel (Frank Gatliff), whom she met on holiday years before. It asks her to solve an unspecified crime. If she succeeds in solving the crime, she will inherit £20,000. Her only clue is a booking on a tour of stately homes and gardens. She sets off to see what she can uncover, along with her nephew and godson Lionel (Peter Tilbury).

It is future film director Oliver Parker’s acting debut as a London copper.

Nemesis was broadcast by the BBC in two 50-minute parts on Sunday 8 February 1987 and Sunday 15 February 1987.

Also in the cast are Anna Cropper, Margaret Tyzack, Valerie Lush, Helen Cherry, John Horsley, Peter Tilbury, Frank Gatliff, Bruce Payne, Liz Fraser, Joanna Hole, Jane Booker, Peter Copley, Roger Hammond, Patrick Godfrey, Barbara Franceschi, Ann Queensberry, Alison Skilbeck, and Roger Booth.

The prequel story A Caribbean Mystery, in which Miss Marple first encounters Jason Rafiel and they solve a mystery, was not yet made by the BBC. When it was, Jason Rafiel was played by Donald Pleasence.

Miss Marple: Nemesis is directed by David Tucker, runs 105 minutes, is made by 7 Network, A+E Networks and British Broadcasting Corporation, is released by BBC, is written by T R Bowen, based on the novel by Agatha Christie, is shot by John Walker, is produced by Guy Slater (executive producer) and George Gallaccio, and is scored by Alan Blaikley (composer: title music) and Ken Howard (composer: incidental music, title music).

It is followed by Miss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington, directed by Martyn Friend (1988), the ninth in the 12 film series.

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

It was remade by ITV in 2009 with Geraldine McEwan as part of the third season of her Marple series.

Nemesis was first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in November 1971. It is the last Miss Marple novel Mrs Christie wrote, though the final Miss Marple novel Sleeping Murder was her last novel to be published, posthumously.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,632

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