Strange Will (Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple)

Strange Will (風変わりな遺言 - Fūgawari na Yuigon) was a Japanese anime television story produced by Oriental Light and Magic for NHK television. The story was Episode 3 of NHK's anime series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple. The adaptation was written by Shôji Yonemura, directed by Masakazu Amiya and Naohito Takahashi and broadcast on 25 July 2004. It was an adaptation of the Agatha Christie short story Strange Jest. The title of the show is also sometimes translated as "An Unusual Will".

Synopsis
Mabel West is visiting her great aunt Miss Marple. A young couple arrives to seek Miss Marple's help in finding some buried treasure which they believe their late Uncle Matthew bequeathed to them.

Comparison with Original Story
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Except for the involvement of Mabel, the plot follows the original story very faithfully, with only minor changes.
 * Edward and Charmian are not introduced by Jane Helier. Here a mutual friend named Shirley suggests that they go and visit Miss Marple. She had also written to tell Miss Marple to expect them. We don't actually see Shirley--she is mentioned only.
 * The first meeting doesn't take place at a party. Edward and Charmian drive to St Mary Mead to call on Miss Marple.
 * The Mrs Beaton reference to the need to first catch the hare is faithfully reproduced. Here Miss Marple also adds Mrs Beaton's five simple steps to making the perfect tea.
 * The village parallels of Mrs Eldritch and Uncle Henry are mentioned in full detail.
 * Mabel is the one who finds the secret drawer by pulling out all the drawers of the desk. Charmian and Edward tell Miss Marple that they had already found it earlier and it was empty. Then, just like in the original story, Miss Marple uses a hairpin to open the secret compartment within the secret drawer to reveal a packet of papers.
 * The clue of recipe of bacon and spinach is gone through carefully, with Mabel being the one to remark that "bacon and spinach" means nonsense.
 * The final clue of the tapping of the right eye and winking and reference to "All my eye and Betty Martin" is changed, probably because this would have been difficult to carry across in translation. So here, they find love letters to Uncle Mathew from a woman missionary from places like Hawaii and Mauritius. Miss Marple says that since the recipe was nonsense, the important papers must be the letters.
 * Edward examines the letters and realises that the letters are much newer than the envelopes. Miss Marple shows them the 1851 2 cent blue stamp on one of the envelopes. It has a picture of an angel who appears to be winking. This she says, is why Uncle Mathew tapped his right eye and winked (this description of the stamp is unique to this adaptation). Miss Marple does, like in the original story, attribute this insight to her great nephew Lionel's hobby of stamp collecting.

Characters/Voice talents
Not every character has a credited voice talent
 * Fumiko Orikasa as Mabel
 * Yukari Hirayama as Edna
 * Masako Jô as Oliver
 * Mitsuhiro Oikawa as Edward
 * Noriko Sakai as Charmian
 * Kaoru Yachigusa as Miss Marple
 * Uncle Mathew Stroud
 * Mrs Eldritch - mentioned as parallel
 * Uncle Henry - mentioned as parallel
 * Shirley
 * Lionel