Miss Marple on TV

These days ITV keeps showing televised or film versions of Agatha Christie's novels almost every day. While David Suchet makes a good Poirot (better than Peter Ustinov), I am yet to see a satisfactory Miss Marple. I like the Miss Marple series better because I have not come across another such fictional detective. But I am almost always disappointed in the film/TV versions of the stories.

Joan Hickson, who stars in most of the episodes, doesn't look the part of a fluffy, pink, slightly dithering old lady wrapped up in shawls and scarves. Nor do any of the others who have played the role in the past. I wonder if ITV ever considered Jean Alexander, who plays Auntie Wainwright in the sitcom The Last of the Summer Wine. As Auntie Wainwright, she looks like the perfect Miss Marple.

I will reserve my judgement on Julia Mackenzie, the latest Miss Marple, until I have seen A Pocketful of Rye.

A Picture of Britain

This BBC TV series 'A Picture of Britain' presented by David Dimbleby is a masterpiece.Through the six-part series Dimbleby shows how the british landscape has influenced painters, poets, novelists and composers over the years. He takes us to see Wordsworth's daffodils at the lake district, the barren landscape of Haworth Moor reflecting Heathcliff's anguish in the Wuthering Heights, the cliffs of Dover that inspired Turner to paint his war-torn seascapes and the blissful flatlands of Suffolk painted by Constable.

The series combines two of my loves- landscape paintings of the impressionist era and travel. I have wanted to own the DVDs ever since I first watched the programme on TV. As the photo shows, I now have my own copy! I watched the part on the romantic north (the lake district and the Yorkshire dales) this morning. I couldn't have asked for a better start to this bank holiday weekend!