The 12 Miss Marple novels and Joan Hickson films: ‘I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple.’

The 12 Agatha Christie Miss Marple novels and Joan Hickson film versions. Mrs Christie wrote to her in the 1940s: ‘I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple.’

The 12 Agatha Christie Miss Marple novels:

The Murder at the Vicarage (1930, Novel)

The Body in the Library (1942, Novel)

The Moving Finger (1943, Novel)

A Murder Is Announced (1950, Novel)

They Do It with Mirrors (1952, Novel) – also published as Murder with Mirrors

A Pocket Full of Rye (1953, Novel)

4.50 from Paddington (1957, Novel) – also published as What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1962, Novel)

A Caribbean Mystery (1964, Novel)

At Bertram’s Hotel (1965, Novel)

Nemesis (1971, Novel)

Sleeping Murder (1976, Novel).

Illustration by Gilbert Wilkinson of Miss Marple (December 1927 issue of The Royal Magazine).

Miss Marple’s first appearance was in a short story published in The Royal Magazine in December 1927 called The Tuesday Night Club. It became the first chapter of Miss Marple’s first short story collection The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930 and her last was in the posthumous Sleeping Murder in 1976.

The BBC adapted all the Miss Marple novels as a series titled Miss Marple with Joan Hickson from 1984 to 1992.

The TV series of 12 films featuring Joan Hickson:

The Body in the Library (1984). It premiered in three parts from 26 to 28 December 1984 on BBC One.

The Moving Finger (1985). It first aired on 21–22 February 1985.

A Murder Is Announced (1985). The novel was adapted by Alan Plater, filmed in 1985 and first aired in three parts on 28 February, 1 March and 2 March 1985 on BBC1.

A Pocketful of Rye (1985). It was first broadcast in two parts on 7 and 8 March 1985.

The Murder at the Vicarage (1986). It was first broadcast on 25 December 1986.

Sleeping Murder (1987). It was first broadcast on 11 January 1987 (part 1) and 18 January 1987 (part 2).

At Bertram’s Hotel (1987). It was first broadcast on 25 January 1987 (part 1) and 1 February 1987 (part 2).

Nemesis (1987). It was first broadcast on 8 February 1987 (part 1) and 15 February 1987 (part 2).

4.50 from Paddington (1987). It was first broadcast on 25 February 1987.

A Caribbean Mystery (1989). It was first broadcast on 25 December 1989. It was also previously made with Helen Hayes and premiered on 22 October 1983.

They Do It With Mirrors (1991). It was first broadcast on 29 December 1991.

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1992). It was first broadcast on 27 December 1992.

Joan Hickson appeared on stage in the 1940s in an Agatha Christie play Appointment with Death, which was seen by Mrs Christie, who wrote to her in a note: ‘I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple.’

Joan Hickson has a role as a housekeeper in Murder, She Said, (1961), the first of four British MGM productions starring Margaret Rutherford.

Ms Hickson played the maid Emmy in another Agatha Christie play adaptation, the 1937 film Love from a Stranger, starring Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone, and based on Mrs Christie’s 1924 short story Philomel Cottage.

Dane Cottage in Five Bells Lane, in the village of Nether Wallop, Hampshire, England, is used as Miss Marple’s home in the village of St Mary Mead for Ms Hickson’s BBC adaptations of the Agatha Christie novels.

The conductor Leopold Stokowski died a heart attack at the age of 95 at his home in Nether Wallop on 13 September 1977. He is remembered for his appearance in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia.

Joan Bogle Hickson, OBE (5 August 1906 – 17 October 1998). She made her first film appearance in 1934, and her films included Carry On Nurse, Carry On Constable, Carry on Loving and Carry on Girls, as well as Confessions of a Window Cleaner.

She lived in Rose Lane, Wivenhoe, along the River Colne 43 miles from London, in Essex, from 1958 until her death in 1998. She died in Colchester General Hospital from a stroke, aged 92. She is interred under her married name, Joan Bogle Butler, at Sidbury Cemetery, in Devon.