I have a confession to make.

After the last three adaptation posts in this series, I was getting ready to quit. It had started to feel like every post came back to the same points: BBC adapted the plot, iTV adapted the themes, and iTV came out on top. And while I like to think I’m a persevering person, there are only so many ways to write about that pattern. I was worried that I would write a dozen posts with only three posts’ of content. But I decided it was worth reading A Murder is Announced and watching the adaptations, just to be safe.

I am so glad I did.

Until now, the adaptations have followed a specific pattern. The BBC team adapted the plot points, but made small character changes that messed up themes. The iTV team often made large changes, but always in service of furthering the thematic elements of the story. Perhaps surprisingly, I’m willing to put up with a lot of plot shenanigans – new gay characters! Gender switches! Secret love affairs! – as long as the themes remain intact.

In a complete reversal of expectations, this BBC adaptation far outshone the iTV one, in both plot and thematic loyalty. The BBC team did a clean and competent job, and the casting carried the show. The iTV team, on the other hand, made a real mess. We got sensational changes that muddied the themes, and lackluster execution that hampered the effort further. Breaking this down will be a real treat – one of the reasons I started this series in the first place.

For some expectation-setting, before we get into the adaptations: A Murder is Announced is a post-WWII mystery set in a small English country village. Miss Marple grapples with post-war scarcity and deep uncertainty around identity while solving the murder of a Swiss hotel employee. The book explores themes of fuzzy identity, economic scarcity, and moral reinvention – while delivering some of the funniest scenes yet.

The BBC: A perfectly fine adaptation

Let’s start with the BBC to set the baseline. This is a thoroughly competent adaptation, with a few standout elements. Specifically, the writing and performances of Letty Blacklock (Ursula Howell), Dora Bunner (Renée Asherson), Hinchcliffe (Paola Dionisotti), and Murgatroyd (Joan Sims) make this one special.

Letty and Dora’s relationship serves as the core of the plot, and the BBC adaptation team let us fall in love with the pair. Dora may be a bit wooden – but that’s kind of the point. She’s meant to be dull but thoroughly loyal, a complete innocent. Asherson plays her as a wide-eyed naïf, and it’s basically impossible not to feel bad when she’s murdered. Howell’s Letty is understated and efficient, with only the slightest odd looks at Dora to clue you in on what’s going on. This is very much in keeping with the book, where only the smallest clues suggest that there’s anything lurking under Letty’s surface.

Hinch and Murgatroyd serve as a foil to the pair, with Murgatroyd’s giggly, forgetful disposition establishing her as another innocent. The BBC portrays her recollection of a key discrepancy as a private moment, making it more shocking when someone murders her immediately. And Hinch’s clear affection for her and distress at her death make catching this murderer feel even more imperative.

This adaptation doesn’t get everything right. I’d love to see the BBC show a friendly police force – we don’t get to see the teamwork that made the novel particularly enjoyable. And there are moments of truly terrible camerawork – surely reshoots were possible? But overall, the adaptation team chose to let the story stand for itself: no weird character tweaks or mechanism changes. And for the most part, it works as a very pleasant, cozy watch.

iTV: Sense without sensibility

The iTV just could not let well enough lie.

Across each of the previous adaptations I’ve covered, the iTV team chose to make pretty significant changes and additions to the plot. In The Murder at the Vicarage, they give Miss Marple a fully-invented backstory. In The Body in the Library, they change the gender of the killer, and make her queer. And in The Moving Finger, they make a character explicitly gay (instead of just coded so), set him up with another (canonically hetero) character, and kill that character off early just to introduce drama.

Yet, none of these changes meaningfully impact the thematic underpinnings of their source material. In fact, many of them underscore the themes woven through each adaptation, highlighting complementary elements of the story to tell a coherent narrative. The same cannot be said of their adaptation of A Murder is Announced.

What works?

Let’s start with the good. Zoë Wanamaker (Madame Hooch! Ariadne Oliver!) plays Letty Blacklock, and she does admirably well with what the writers gave her. Elaine Paige as Dora Bunner is also quite sympathetic. This version does better by Mitzi – she keeps her name, and acts more realistically – right until the very end. And the production values are much better than the BBC, resulting in a much prettier movie.

Spilling secrets

But the inventions! Both the Swettingham family and the Easterbrooks get sordid family backstories, which play out in full, melodramatic glory. We cut Bunch, Miss Marple’s “in” to the village, and replace her with Murgatroyd. This means Miss Marple is staying with the two queer women, who must now attempt to hide their relationship. We also cut Sir Henry, so Miss Marple must work her way into the police’s good graces. And although, like in the novel, one of the couples gets together in the end – it’s the wrong one. In adding this drama to Edmund’s life, he has no time to fall for Philippa; Julia and Patrick end up together instead.

These changes meaningfully impact the thematic elements of the story. In the novel, many of these secrets are implied or referenced as one-offs, creating a shifting, mysterious backdrop. Bringing all these secrets out in the open does the opposite, ruining the dramatic tension in favor of sheer drama.

It’s particularly egregious with Hinch and Murgatroyd. First of all, it seems unlikely that Miss Marple would look askance at their relationship, even if she caught them. It feels like they’re keeping a secret mainly for dramatic storytelling purposes – not real ones. Secondly, having Miss Marple related to a murder victim makes the story personal, which is the opposite of how she normally operates. For Miss Marple, murder is terrible because it’s murder – her personal knowledge of the victim doesn’t make her any more likely to think a murder is worth solving. We, the audience, need to like Hinch and Murgatroyd – but that’s separate from how Miss Marple thinks of them.

How to ruin a reveal

On top of these explicit changes, the writers also change the way we see Miss Blacklock. Cracks in the facade appear much earlier, and we see Letty act much more warily of Dora much sooner. She’s also more antagonistic towards her cousins, making her less generally likable. All of these small changes mean that the Big Reveal at the end is less surprising.

And oh, the ending. In the novel, Mitzi gets a moment of bravery and redemption. Throughout the story, she’s been trying everyone’s patience; only Miss Marple sees that she needs a chance to shine. And I was hopeful, watching this version, that this more accurate version of Mitzi would get the same opportunity.

Nope. No plot, no trap – just Mitzi throwing a temper tantrum and robbing the moment of any emotional tension. This version may have more sympathy for its queer protagonists, but it comes at the expense of the redemptive story arc for its WWII refugee character. I’ll put that in the bucket of “interesting thematic choices.”

All these changes rob the final reveal of the surprise and emotional impact of the original. If we don’t like Letty – or care about her relationship with Bunny – it’s hard to care that she murdered her in cold blood. The writers replace Mitzi’s redemption with mere petulance, and cut Miss Marple’s wisdom in choosing her to help. And instead of our likable, more honest protagonists finding love, we see Julia and Patrick – the unpleasant liars – end up together.

Changes for the sake of sensation

The iTV team lost the plot quite a bit on this one. Where in other adaptations they’ve done a great job of picking apart the thematic elements of the narrative, here they seem to have worked off an incomplete dissection. You can see what they were trying to do – surely more secrets, exposed earlier, would increase the sense of secrecy? Unfortunately, they achieve the opposite end – unlikable characters, a more confusing plot, and a more predictable ending.

The changes they made in other adaptations worked because they generally supported the narrative. Changing the murderer to a different character (in a lesbian relationship) in The Body in the Library elevated the potential threat to the status quo. Mr. Pye’s hidden relationship with Colonel Appleton in The Moving Finger, as executed, effectively eliminated a suspect and amplified the sense of unease cause by poison-pen letters. Equally importantly, those changes worked with the broader narrative established by the adaptation team, amplifying other elements of the source material that were more faithfully adapted.

This team erred by losing the emotional core of the story. Letty and Dora’s relationship forms the most critical part of the novel, and the writers spend too much time moving other story elements around to really give either character due justice. All the other changes serve as distractions from this story: we don’t get to appreciate Dora and her adoration for Letty, because we’re too busy watching Edmund yell at the Colonel.

Some final thoughts

As we’ve looked at other entries in the Miss Marple series, I’ve focused on the importance of theme to adaptation. These adaptations of A Murder is Announced, however, demonstrate the importance of character relationships, and their impact on emotional interpretation. What set the BBC and iTV adaptations apart was their ability (or lack thereof) to identify and adapt the relationships that serve as the emotional core of the story. Even the best casting choices cannot make up for additions and inventions that distract from the core emotional points.

This has been a really fun one, and I’m glad that my last Miss Marple for the year is this interesting to think about. For the rest of the year, I’ve got a few holiday surprises up my sleeve. Until next time, stay cozy, and stay curious!