And so we come to the adaptation of The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. Having watched two in quick succession, I now understand why I had underestimated the value of the novel. Neither the BBC nor iTV was able to capture the magic of the original well. Both focus almost exclusively on the plot, at the expense of all the texture that makes the original so great. Given that the plot itself is shallow without the underlying theme, it doesn’t make for the most compelling watch.

This is somewhat surprising, because most of the time, at least one of the two adapters does reasonably well. But it’s a good opportunity to dissect what went wrong – and what makes a work hard to adapt. In this case, we can boil it down to two elements: a protagonist-centric adaptation style combined with a theme that unfolds mostly in exposition. Add in a dash of focus on Hollywood glamor at the expense of characterization, and voilà! You’ve taken all the shine out of a truly fantastic mystery novel.

Centering Miss Marple – at all costs

As the novels have progressed, we’ve seen Christie take different approaches to centering Miss Marple. Sometimes, as in A Pocket Full of Rye, she’s right at the heart of the detection. At other times, like in The Moving Finger, she stays on the periphery of the story, with other characters gathering clues. Typically, when stories fall into the latter category, they feature new protagonists with a self-contained story.

But The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side is a little different – Miss Marple stays on the periphery, but the characters investigating are well-known to readers. We know and love Dolly Bantry and Dermot Craddock, so we’re happy to watch them gather clues. We may spend less time with Miss Marple, but it still feels like part of the Miss Marple series.

Unfortunately, the BBC and iTV series have a problem: they’ve got a short amount of time. Plus, they know their audience is here for Miss Marple. The BBC has an added challenge: each of their episodes had years between releases, making it harder to remember characters. (And unlike rereads, audiences couldn’t easily re-watch all the prior Marples in anticipation of the new one.)

And so, to differing degrees, they both choose to center Miss Marple, much more so than the novel does. In the BBC version, Miss Marple even attends Marina’s festival (though she stays downstairs to preserve the mechanics of the plot). In both versions, Miss Marple goes to visit Marina’s photographer (and her ex-adopted daughter). The iTV version even brings her to the set when Marina suspects poison in her coffee. Instead of allowing Dolly and Dermot to come to her with information, Miss Marple seeks it out herself.

From neighborly to nosy

This means we have a Miss Marple with a lot more agency – and a lot more luck. This Miss Marple won’t defer to any authority – not even her beloved Dr. Haydock’s medical advice to stay at home. This creates a surprising character shift, from a curious neighbor to a nosy one.

In the novels, Miss Marple almost never acts this aggressively – only when she’s out for some form of righteous vengeance. And that level of investigation doesn’t make sense here. Miss Marple met the victim, and Marina Gregg only once – and she didn’t particularly like either. There’s no clear-cut case of innocents at harm to rile up her sense of indignation. She investigates out of neighborly curiosity and mild personal interest. As for information – she lets it come to her, in social calls and visits, rather than hard pushes. This is a pretty mellow Marple.

But in these adaptations, Miss Marple goes out of her way to dig up information in an intrusive way. It’s not clear why she’s doing so – she just is. The BBC Marple is already a bit pushy; combine that sass with her over-interest in this case, and you get an actually nosy protagonist. She goes out of her way to involve herself, whether she’s wanted or not. She’s got less finesse – which, in my opinion, is a shame. Miss Marple’s standout feature is her social maneuvering, so it’s a bit odd to see her going after investigations like a bull in a china shop.

Plot over theme

It doesn’t stop with changes to Miss Marple – neither the BBC nor iTV really manage to capture the societal evolution that Christie’s writing reflects. And to be fair to them, this is likely pretty hard. A lot of this thematic element comes out in exposition, and in descriptions of St. Mary Mead. Cherry serves as a guide into this New World – but she’s only slightly related to the actual investigation. And it’s likely that modern audiences don’t want to hear a lot of griping about domestic labor, though it ends up paying off.

So iTV just cuts it. Gone is Miss Knight and the Development. Cherry’s still here, but acts mostly as the latest maid – there’s no way to see that her role is any different than Florence or Gladys or any other other domestic help. It’s a pure mystery story, through and through.

The BBC tries a little more, but is still restricted by time constraints – and modern knowledge. It’s interesting to contrast this with A Murder is Announced, which took place during post-War rationing and covers themes and storylines that are much more familiar to modern readers. It’s easier for someone today to understand Mitzi’s background as a refugee, or the idea of rationing, than it is to understand the social impact of suburbanization. So where the BBC included these textural elements while adapting A Murder is Announced, they’re excluded here. Even when Miss Marple meets Heather Babcock, it’s just in a village house – nothing that looks like a suburb. There are no mentions of people still being people, no notion that the village world has changed.

It was quite a jarring experience, to transition from the writer story with so much rich texture to two adaptations that focus only on the plot. Because when you lose St. Mary Mead and the discussions of change, you’re left with a story that feels quite shallow. Marina Gregg, herself, is shallow and unlikable. The story’s made interesting by the contrast between Gregg’s type of change and the Development – the New Money and the social evolution.

Jason gets a glow-up

I’ll finish off with a small rant that you may have seen coming from the last post. Jason is supposed to be ugly. Christie references this a bunch – she’s quite rude about it, describing him as literally clown-like. His physical ruggedness belies his honest character and the strength of his love for Marina. It creates sympathy for a character who has to do a lot to support the flighty actress he has the misfortune to love. He’s the Colonel Brandon to Marina’s Marianne.

And yet – both BBC and iTV choose to give him a glow-up. The BBC has a fairly attractive man (and a slim one, not someone I’d call rugged). iTV takes it a step farther with a young, attractive man. Neither of these actors get enough screen time to establish their devotion to Marina in other ways. And so, when they make their final decision in the last scene, it rings hollow. I won’t write more here – spoilers! – but man I wish we could have spent more time on that relationship, especially given that the mystery became the core of both episodes.

This was always going to be a tough book to adapt, but the casting choices around Jason make me feel like this time, both teams really stayed at the surface. They cut out all the social commentary and replaced it with drama or Marple shenanigans or Slack nonsense, and it makes for a very tonally different story. It’s no wonder I was surprised at the depth of The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side on my re-read.

I’m so torn this week – I found a new Marple favorite, but am extremely frustrated by the adaptation choices. I’m hoping that the next entry will be a little different… but we’ll see.

Until next time, stay cozy, and stay curious!