Cherry Baker

Cherry Baker was a companion and household help of Jane Marple. Originally Cherry lived in the Development with her husband and did occasional housework for Miss Marple.

Cherry's problems with her neighbors and Miss Marple's with her companion Miss Knight were solved to their mutual satisfaction by Cherry becoming Jane Marple's full time help and moving with her husband into the apartment over the old stables behind the cottage.

In The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Miss Marple describes Cherry as a quick and efficient cook", intelligent, able to take telephone calls correctly, and quick to spot errors in the tradesmen's books. She is not much given to turning mattresses, and her method of washing up is to throw everything into the sink and put in "a snowstorm of detergent". Miss Marple turns her head away whenever she passes the pantry, so that she will not have to witness this.

After the death of Heather Badcock, Cherry is the first to tell Miss Marple about it. She shares her opinion that Heather was a very kind woman, and was always doing things for other people, but she was always so sure that she knew what was best, that what other people thought about it would not matter.

Cherry does not get along with her neighbbours, like Mrs Hartwell, and although she likes the house that she and her husband, Jim, live in, she does not llike the feeling and the people. She complains of "backbiting and tale-telling and writing to the council". Jim says that Cherry did not mind her neighbours when she lived in Huddersfield, but she says that it was not the same there.

Cherry is friends with Gladys Dixon. Gladys had helped at Gossington Hall on the day of the fête, and tells Cherry that she saw something "funny". Gladys says that she was standing nearby when Heather spilled the cocktail, and that "she did it on purpose". Cherry tells Miss Marple about this. Miss Marple later figures out that when Gladys said "she did it on purpose", she did not mean Heather, but the murderer.

Cherry later asks Miss Marple if she and Jim can have the rooms over the kitchen. She says that Jim could fix things for Miss Marple, and she promises to take more trouble with the beds and the washing up, and says that she will look after Miss Marple every bit as well as Miss Knight. Miss Marple puts no faith in Cherry's promise, but she considers Cherry's warmheartedness, vitality, and deep interest in everything that is going on, to be supremely important.

Novels featuring Cherry Baker

 * The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
 * Nemesis

Portrayals
In the 1992 BBC adaptation of The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side'', the character of Cherry Baker is played by Anna Niland. Her role is slightly larger here. She is the one who brings old film magazines for Miss Marple to research the background of Marina Gregg. In the original, this was done by Mrs Jameson. Cherry is friend of Gladys Dixon and when Gladys told her about what she thought she had seen at the poisoning of Heather Badcock, Cherry brought Gladys to see Miss Marple, thus supplying a vital clue to the solution. Cherry also talked about her husband Jim (who is not seen onscreen) and how he like to play German composers on his gramophone. Cherry did not know the names of the works and called them "that German music". While speaking about this to Miss Knight, Miss Marple got an insight by word association about "German measles" which also helped solved the case. As in the original, Cherry moved with her husband into Miss Marple's cottage, with the approval of both Dr Petrie and Raymond West.

In ITV's 2010 adaptation of the The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, the part of Cherry Baker is played by Olivia Darnley. She appears to be Miss Marple's maid in this adaptation. There is no indication that she is married. She plays the same role here as in the original novel. When her friend Primrose Dixon tells her about what she saw at the fete, Cherry relays this to Miss Marple and this helps Miss Marple solve the case.