By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Agatha Christie's Marple episode)

By the Pricking of My Thumbs is the third episode of the second series of Agatha Christie's Marple. It was broadcast on ITV by Granada Television on 19 February 2006. The screenplay was written by Stewart Harcourt and the episode was directed by Peter Medak. It was an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel of the same name although originally Miss Marple was not involved.

Synopsis[]

When Tommy and Tuppence Beresford visit Tommy's elderly aunt in her nursing home, Tuppence is concerned by the odd behavior of some staff and residents. So when Tuppence hears about Aunt Ada's sudden death and the disappearance of her friend Mrs Lancaster, she realizes her concerns were right. Tuppence meets Miss Marple and together they follow a path of clues that lead them to the Norfolk village of Farrell St Edmund, where they find a community guarding an array of secrets. Only by getting to the bottom of these secrets do they begin to unravel the truth about the mystery of Aunt Ada's death and Mrs Lancaster's disappearance.

While Tommy and Tuppence do investigate the disappearance of Mrs Lancaster like in the original novel, how this investigation progresses deviates significantly. The insertion of Miss Marple into the plot is, of course, non-canonical.

Plot summary/Comparison with the original novel[]

(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)

The plot originally featured Tommy and Tuppence Beresford as detectives in their own right but for the episode the story was altered by sending Tommy away on military intelligence business abroad for the first part and writing Miss Marple in. The relationship between Tommy and Tuppence is somewhat strained. Tommy doesn't pay much attention to her or her ideas and Tuppence has taken to drinking too much.
The visit to Aunt Ada takes place as in the original. Like in the original Aunt Ada is hostile to Tuppence. The discussion between Tommy and Ada is limited to a discussion about a crossword clue: "White House flowers away from the African plain." (meaning Roosevelt minus Veldt yielding rose). Like in the original, roses are a theme here.
Tuppence's encounter with Mrs Lancaster takes place much as in the original. But here besides mentioning the fireplace, and milk, she also offers polo mints which will become significant later.
Aunt Ada dies. Tommy is away so Tuppence clears up her things. There is no plot device of the desk. Everything focuses on the painting. Tuppence finds a note from Aunt Ada behind the painting. It is a lot more explicit than in the original. Ada says a murderer is at large and Mrs Lancaster is not safe. "Look to the painting and ... use your intelligence...." From these, Tuppence becomes convinced that Aunt Ada has been murdered. She goes back to Sunny Ridge herself.
Miss Marple gets involved because she is in Sunny Ridge visiting her friend Mrs Moody and overhears Miss Packard telling Tuppence that Mrs Lancaster has left. Mrs Moody tells Tuppence that she left unwillingly. In a car with "one eye". Tuppence also shows Ada's note to Miss Marple.
The same checks with "Cleveland Hotel" and Mr Eccles take place, with the same unhelpful results. Eccles has a much smaller plot role here as there is no diamond robbery sideplot, just a solicitor who helps the Johnsons with Mrs Lancaster.
Tuppence doesn't take a train journey to find the house, nor does Tommy visit an art gallery about the painting which in this adaptation is a miniature gingerbread play house. The whole thing unfolds more simply. Miss Marple's friend and art expert Mr Timothy identifies the painting as a Boscowan. The artist kept notes about his paintings and so Timothy tells them the place was Farrell St Edmund in Norfolk (not Sutton Chancellor in Berkshire).
Like in the original, there are additions to the painting, in this case a rope, a rose, the name "Waterlily" on the gate and a figure at the window.
There as no visit to Emma Boscowan. She doesn't occur at all. Timothy has already told them the name of the village so they proceed there directly.
Miss Marple and Tuppence proceed to Farrell St Edmund and are taken straight to the local village inn where they meet many of the locals--the pattern of relationships in the village is different from the original. Hannah Beresford is the innkeeper but not quite a fount of local gossip or history as Mrs Copleigh in the original. Nellie Bligh is the wife of the vicar Septimus Bligh.
So what happens in the village is different with Miss Marple and Tuppence talking to various people, along with several diversionary sideplots. Various people are made to appear sinister. The local vicar is frequently drunk and has something to hide. The Johnsons (local shopowners) claim they don't know Mrs Lancaster and did not take Mrs Lancaster away, but seem to have unexplained wealth. Dr Waters, the local doctor with a daughter Rose, is concerned about what Tuppence and Miss Marple know. Sir Philip Starke seems to like doting on the children in the village. And everyone seems to take pains to deny there is a house like in the painting.
Part of the mystery then focuses on Sir Philip's car which he claims was stolen and then returned. Tuppence finds polo mints in the back seat, showing that it was used to take Mrs Lancaster away.
There is no sideplot of the vicar being asked to search for the grave of a child and Tuppence does not get knocked out. The entire plotline of her going missing is omitted--after all she could not go missing with Miss Marple around. When Tommy gets back from overseas (the equivalent of the conference), they are in touch immediately. She asks Tommy to order a postmortem on Aunt Ada. He is at first reluctant and also dismisses Miss Marple's opinion but Miss Marple asks him to ask Sir Henry Clithering about her. So an autopsy is performed and proves that Aunt Ada died of morphine poisoning -- in the original, it was left open whether she was killed or had died naturally by coincidence.
Unlike the original, Tommy's involvement only takes place much later. At first he is sceptical when Tuppence asks for an autopsy on Aunt Ada. He tells Tuppence not to imagine things. But Miss Marple tells Tommy to consult Sir Henry Clithering who will vouch for her judgment. There is therefore no sideplot of Dr Murray meeting Tommy to tell him about strange deaths at Sunny Ridge. In this case also, Mrs Moody (Miss Marple's friend) did not die. Everything is settled by the autopsy.
The backstory which the villagers seem keen to suppress is the disappearance of Lily Waters, Dr Waters's daughter and twin of Rose. Lily's body was found 2 weeks later. Blame was placed on Job Perry, Amos's brother, who subsequently hanged himself.
Tommy arrives at the village to arrest the Johnsons because Mr Eccles admits that correspondence for "Johnson" is sent to "Commandant Beaurepaire" care of the village shop. The Johnsons are reluctant to reveal who collects the letters. Ethan, the village constable says the only Beaurepaire he knows is a red and white rose, like a hybrid of that of York and Lancaster. Tuppence remembers seeing letters mentioning one Mrs York from a nursing home on Nellie Bligh's desk in Sir Philip's house. So she surmises that Nellie Bligh must be the recipient of the letters. Miss Marple concludes that Nellie Bligh has been moving an old lady moved from nursing home to nursing home under the names of Mrs Lancaster and Mrs York, alternating with every change.
But shortly thereafter, Nellie Bligh is also found murdered. Chris Murphy, an American servicemen at a nearby base, ran over her with his truck. He is arrested but soon released when they discover that Nellie had been poisoned before being left on the road.
In the middle of the night, Vicar Septimus Bligh rings the church bells calling the whole village to hear a confession. He says that when Lily Waters disappeared, everyone blamed Job Perry. Job was innocent and came to Septimus for help but he turned Job away. Job hanged himself. Subsequently, his wife Nellie revealed the true killer and persuaded him to help cover up. Miss Marple pieces the picture together with the trail leading to Philip Starke in a scenario similar to the original. The murderer is Julia Stark, wife of Sir Philip. She was already unbalanced because of inbreeding and the death of her own child. She abducted and killed Lily Waters. Nellie Bligh, loyal to Sir Philip helped to cover up by moving her from nursing home to nursing home. Miss Marple speculates that Julia is now being kept in the gingerbread house. Sir Philip denies that the house exists but Nora Johnson, a young girl steps up and says Sir Philip had shown it to her. It was a play house built for Sir Philip's baby which had died. Nora had played in it and knows where it is.
The ending is fairly similar to the original. Tuppence had gone to Sir Philip's house to search for documents. She sees Mrs Lancaster and follows her to the gingerbread house in the painting. Mrs Lancaster (Julia) tells Tuppence that she did indeed kill Lily Waters and then Nellie Bligh. She then attacks Tuppence but fortunately a large rescue party led by Nora Johnson arrives.
In the episode the Beresford's children are named Andrew, Christopher and Judith. In the written stories their children are the twins Derek and Deborah, and the adopted daughter Betty.

Incidental parallels with original[]

Roses are a trope in this adaptation. At Sir Philip Starke's house there is correspondence to "Commandant Beaurepaire" (a kind of rose) and the roses of Lancaster and York become clues just as in the original.
A doll does come down the chimney but this is in Tuppence's room (in the “Bull and Butcher”) but this has no significance. There is no sideplot of diamonds and a gang of robbers.
Mr Eccles does occur but only in the role of Sir Philip's solicitor who helps move Mrs Lancaster around. Here he is not the leader of a gang of robbers.

Unexplained elements[]

Like all other adaptations and the novel itself, the significance of the child behind the fireplace is not explained.
Who added the items to the painting? In the original Mrs Lancaster wrote the name of a child she had murdered on the painting and then Sir Philip Starke painted a boat over it. In this adaptation, the additions could be hints added by Aunt Ada. There is a bush of red and white roses, the name "Waterlily" on the gate and a hangman's rope. All motifs in the plot.

Sideplots[]

A number of sideplots are spun into the storyline. One concerns the rivalry between Chris Murphy and Ethan Maxwell for Rose Waters. Another is the extra-marital affairs between Septimus Bligh and Hannah Beresford as well as between Sir Philip Stark and Nellie Bligh.
Another sideplot is the strained relationship between Tommy and Tuppence. Tuppence has lost her confidence and has become an alcoholic. At the end of the story, Tommy and Tuppence are reconciled and Tuppence appears to have abandoned her alcoholism.

Cast[]

Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple
Chloe Pennington as Young Hannah
Oliver Jordan as Young Ethan
Anthony Andrews as Tommy Beresford
Greta Scacchi as Tuppence Beresford
Clare Holman as Miss Vera Packard
Miriam Karlin as Marjorie Moody
June Whitfield as Mrs Lancaster
Claire Bloom as Aunt Ada
Steven Berkoff as Mr Eccles
Patrick Barlow as Mr Timothy
O-T Fagbenle as Chris Murphy
Jody Halse as Amos Perry
Josie Lawrence as Hannah Beresford
Michael Maloney as Dr Joshua Waters
Michelle Ryan as Rose Waters
Michael Begley as Ethan Maxwell
Lia Williams as Nellie Bligh
Charles Dance as Septimus Bligh
Bonnie Langford as Betty Johnson
Brian Conley as Eric Johnson
Leslie Phillips as Sir Philip Starke
Eliza Bennett as Nora Johnson
Florence Strickland as Actress playing Jane Eyre
Uncredited actor as Inspector James

Mentioned

Tropes and Themes[]

Filming Locations[]

Loseley Park, Guildford, Surrey - Philip Starke's manor
Turville, Buckinghamshire (the Bull and Butcher inn is prominent) - village of Farrell St Edmund in Norfolk. Although Turville is in Buckinghamshire, which fits the original novel, Farrell St Edmund has been moved to Norfolk, presumably because this was where American air force bases were. It would not have been realistic to have one in Buckinghamshire.
Harpsden Court, Oxfordshire - Sunny Ridge

Research notes[]

In the episode, posters of a Jane Eyre movie are often shown. These posters, with the necessary modifications, are actually the ones used for the American adaptation from 1943 directed by Robert Stevenson, adapted from the Charlotte Brontë novel.

Opening Music[]

"Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole

By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Agatha Christie's Marple episode)

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