Eeskujulik teenijanna is the first episode of the Estonia television mini series Miss Marple'i lood featuring adaptations in the Estonia language of Miss Marple short stories. The series was produced by ETV (Estonian public service TV) and starred Ita Ever in the lead role. Eeskujulik teenijanna is an adaptation of The Case of the Perfect Maid and was first broadcast on 6 Oct 1990.
Synopsis[]
This episode is a fairly faithful adaptation of the original short story where Miss Marple's maid Edna approaches Miss Marple for help because her friend Gladys has been dismissed from her job. The setting is in modern day Estonia but English names and place names are used.
Comparison with original story[]
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
This adaptation is very faithful to the original story. The scriptwriters used the original dialogue where possible, although some scenes have been removed or simplified to keep the story compact.
- The opening scene of Edna and Miss Marple is close to the original. Here, Edna tells Miss Marple that Gladys has been dismissed because of the missing brooch. The brooch was found but Miss Lavinia thought Gladys returned it into the drawer for fear of the police. There is no mention of the broken plate.
- When Miss Marple visits the Skinners, Miss Emily fusses about the hot water bottle as in the original, but not about food--a matter of saving time.
- Secondary characters such as the other villagers are not featured. There is no mention of village parallels and so on. The only one mentioned is Mrs Wetherby. Here Edna tells Miss Marple what Miss Wetherby told her about Gladys's reference at the post office (Mrs Wetherby is not seen on screen). In the original, Miss Wetherby told Miss Marple herself.
- There is actually a scene where Mary is being driven in a Reed's red taxi to Old Hall. We do not see the driver nor hear his name, however.
- There is no depiction of the village gossip about how good Mary is. We only hear this from Miss Lavinia when Miss Marple visits.
- Miss Marple gathers fingerprints the same way and there is mention of Mrs Clement's young son.
- We don't see the other occupants of Old Hall. Here, the information about the robberies is given by Slack in the form of an interview on television. He mentions the Devereuxs and the Carmichaels. The details of the missing items are fairly similar to the original.
- Miss Marple visits police headquarters. She asks for Col Melchett who is not in. She then goes to see Inspector Slack. The interaction here is quite similar to the original story.
- Unlike the original, there is no concluding statement that Miss Marple was right. Here she leaves the police station saying that she has given Slack something to think about.
Cast[]
- Ita Ever - Miss Marple
- Anne Reeman - Lavinia Skinner
- Kersti Kreismann
- Luule Komissarov
- Toomas Lohmuste - Inspector Slack
- Moonika Veski
- Jaanika Veski
- Tauno Lilleoks - Edna
- Andres Raid
- Kersti Tänavsuu
- Jacky Radsin
Transcript[]
Subtitles do not exist for this episode. A transcript is provided. To use, copy the text in the link below into a file and give it a .srt file extension.