Francine Marchal

In Le cheval pâle, the French Télévisions film adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse, for the Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie TV series, Francine Marchal is the parallel of Thomasina Tuckerton in the original story.

In this adaptation, Francine is the neighbour of Alice Avril. They befriend each other and Francine tells her vaguely about how she does not get on with her stepmother and how she would be able to send her stepmother away in a few months time. Later Alice also witnesses a fight between Francine and another girl Viviane over a man named "Alain".

Francine falls sick and Lucille Marchal comes and drags her back home. Alice tries to visit Francine but is not allowed into the house. Alice later steals into the house where she meets Francine. She is dying and tells her about how her hair is falling off.

Alice is worried about what happened to Francine because her name "Marchal" appears with a question mark as the last name on the list held by Père François. All the names on the list were those of people who had died. Alice surmises that the question mark was on the list because at the time it was drawn up, Francine was not yet dead, but perhaps earmarked to be killed.

Nonetheless, Tricard forbids Laurence to conduct an autopsy on Francine because the grounds are too weak and Lucille knows too many influential people. To forestall further inquiries, Lucille also has Francine quickly cremated. Only at the end of the episode when Alice herself suffers poisoning with similar symptoms, and Laurence had forced a confession out of Lucille is it established that Francine had been poisoned with thallium.

Francine Marchal is portrayed by Emilie de Preissac.