Eddie Seward

Eddie Seward (or to give his full name, Edward St John Hillier Seward) is a character created for the 2010 ITV adaptation of the short story The Blue Geranium. Miss Marple met Eddie on the bus from Fothersby to the village of St Ambrose. He told Miss Marple how he loved the beauty of nature. He had just come through a dark tunnel when he saw a white crocus and realised that nature was beautiful--something he never realised. Eddie also referenced a poem by William Wordsworth. He believed God was in nature, which is also one of the recurring themes in the poetry of Wordsworth.

Seward was later found dead, apparently drowned. His body was discovered by some children on the river bank by a golf course. Inspector Somerset believed that Eddie had been murdered but Miss Marple noticed that the bottom half of his tie was missing and thought that suicide was also plausible.

Police investigations revealed that Eddie was a very rich man, having inherited some mining interests. Three years ago he had loaned George Pritchard half a million pounds to finance an air haulage business which had been unsuccessful. George insisted that he had repaid the loan but the police continued to think that Eddie might have come to St Ambrose to see George and that George might have killed him, particularly as, according to the cook Hester Milewater, George had lied about his whereabouts on the morning of Eddie's arrival in the village.

Miss Marple, however, pursued the line of suicide. Eddie had said on the bus that he was going to "force the moment to its crisis" (a line from T. S. Elliot's Prufrock). This suggested that Eddie was summoning up the courage to go to St Ambrose to seek out some a woman. From various sources, Miss Marple learned that Eddie a wife "Penelope". Eddie had been a drunkard and an abusive husband and had driven his wife to leave him. Just before travelling to St Ambrose, Eddie had disappeared from a drying-out clinic in London.

Eddie's wallet was later found. Near the spot, the lower half of his tie was tied to a tree branch. He must have tried to hang himself but the tie broke and he fell into the river and drowned. As Miss Marple told Inspector Somerset, people who wanted to commit suicide often go to a significant place. That spot was significant because it was beautiful and Eddie had said that he had come to admire the beauty of nature.

Inside Eddie's wallet was a card from Fettiplace Auction House. Through this, Miss Marple located Eddie's wife. It turned out to be the artist Hazel Instow. She had changed her name but Eddie must have seen one of her paintings at the gallery and recognised her style. Earlier, Hazel had also mentioned that she saw God in nature and this Miss Marple linked to the same observation Eddie had made. In the final analysis, Miss Marple concluded that Eddie's death was certainly suicide. He had come to ask Hazel to take him back but she had refused. He had then gone to hang himself.

The part of Eddie Seward in the show was played by Jason Durr.