Greenshaw's Folly (Agatha Christie's Marple episode)

Greenshaw's Folly is the second episode of the sixth series of Agatha Christie's Marple.It was broadcast on ITV by Granada Television on 23 June 2013. The screenplay was written by Tim Whitnall and the episode was directed by Sarah Harding. It was an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel of the same name.

Synopsis
When old family friend Louisa Oxley visits Miss Marple one stormy night seeking help, Miss Marple decides to send her and her son, Archie, to safety at the labyrinthine estate of Greenshaw's Folly, owned by Miss Marple's good friend Katherine Greenshaw, an eccentric botanist and the last surviving Greenshaw. Louisa becomes Miss Greenshaw's secretary, and quickly attracts the attention of the gardener Alfred Pollock and actor Nat Fletcher. Things turn sinister when the Folly's faithful butler, Walter Cracken, is killed in what appears to be a tragic accident. Then a guest at the house, Horace Bindler, disappears without a trace. Miss Marple is convinced something is wrong, and her suspicions are confirmed when Miss Greenshaw herself is brutally murdered. Suspects are everywhere, but none can imagine the secrets, both past and present, which Miss Marple uncovers.

Comparison with the original story
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
 * As well as adapting the original Greenshaw's Folly, the plot of The Thumb Mark of St. Peter was also woven into the story.
 * Miss Marple is inserted into the plot more directly. Raymond West is not featured. Here Louisa Oxley comes directly to Miss Marple for help and she introduces Louisa to Katherine Greenshaw. Subsequently Miss Marple becomes a regular visitor to Greenshaw's Folly.
 * Louisa here has only one son, Archie. He plays a large role in the plot including a subplot where his father tries to find and kidnap him.
 * There is an entire sideplot involving St Faith's Orphanage and its dealings with Greenshaw's Folly in the distant past. This serves to introduce a number of additional plausible suspects and motives. See Father Brophy, Cicely Beauclerk and Decimus Greenshaw for details.
 * There are two additional murders: Walter Cracken the butler and Horace Bindler who in this adaptation has a totally different backstory and plot role.
 * The mechanics of the killing of Miss Greenshaw and the misdirection is the same as in the original. But here, besides an arrow, poisoning by atropine is also employed (here Miss Greenshaw grows her own Belladona and distills atropine for her own eyedrops). The "pile-of-carp" plot element from Thumb Mark of St. Peter is featured here.
 * In the original, Miss Marple explains her conclusions as a theory to the inspector who then goes off to investigate and confirm them and this concludes the case. In the adaptation, the is a denouement at Greenshaw's Folly followed by the confession of the guilty parties who are taken away by the police.
 * The clue of the good plants mixed with weeds, showing that the weeder was no true gardener is also featured. Here it is a crucial step for Miss Marple to arrive at how the murder of Miss Greenshaw was committed. In the original, Miss Marple only saw this after the case was concluded and it served to confirm her hypothesis.
 * In the original Miss Greenshaw had made a will. However what she wrote and what she told other people about its contents proved to be different and this was a significant plot element. In the adaptation, Miss Greenshaw had not yet made a will. She died before she could do so, although she had made some promises to people.
 * The solution relies on understanding the Greenshaw family tree (which is slightly different from that in the original). In the original, this is speculated at. Here, Miss Marple confirms it with documents from Somerset House.

Cast

 * Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple
 * Kimberley Nixon as Louisa Oxley
 * Bobby Smalldridge as Archie Oxley
 * Martin Compston as Alfred Pollock
 * Vic Reeves (credited as Jim Moir) as Walter Cracken
 * Julia Sawalha as Mrs Cresswell
 * Fiona Shaw as Miss Katherine Greenshaw
 * Sam Reid as Nat Fletcher
 * Rufus Jones as Horace Bindler
 * Joanna David as Grace Ritchie
 * Robert Glenister as Father Brophy
 * Judy Parfitt as Cicely Beauclerk
 * Candida Gubbins as Minnie Tulliver
 * John Gordon Sinclair as Inspector Welch
 * Matt Willis as Sergeant Cayley
 * Oscar Pearce as Philip Oxley
 * Duncan Casey as Parsons (uncredited)
 * Jenkins
 * Mr Fordyce

Mentioned

 * Cynthia
 * Decimus Greenshaw
 * Nettie Greenshaw
 * Harry Fletcher
 * Edwin Beauclerk
 * Edmund Beauclerk
 * Inch

Tropes and Themes
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
 * The victim knows a dark secret.
 * The murderers are secretly related
 * The murderer is an actor/actress.
 * The murderer stands to inherit from the victim

Filming Locations

 * Knebworth House, Knebworth, Hertfordshire - Greenshaw's Folly
 * St Joseph's College, Mill Hill, Barnet (now St Joseph's Gate Apartments) - St Faith's Orphanage

Research notes

 * In the dialogue, Downshire is mentioned as the county