I’ve always found the art of adaptation – taking a novel and transforming it for a different medium – particularly interesting. It started with my love of the Harry Potter series – specifically, with the film adaptation of Goblet of Fire. I’m pretty sure young Ellora went through all five stages of grief as she realized how difficult adapting a story to a new medium can be.

Over time, my interest in adaption grew even further, especially with access to great YouTube content. Series like Lost in Adaptation broke down the pure mechanics of adaptation – what can be cut or added, and why. Channels like Nando v. Movies taught me about the difficulties in adapting an ongoing story that constantly changes. At the same time, critics like Nerdwriter and Folding Ideas showed me the many tools in the filmmaker’s toolkit.

But most of what I’ve seen on adaptation focuses on stories that have a single, overarching storyline, and a single adaptation. This can make it difficult to fully explore the nature of adaptation, since there’s only a single point of comparison. To learn about adaption, you need to find a series with a stable cast of characters and (ideally) multiple adaptions. In effect, you’re looking for a literary murder-of-the-week show – a.k.a. a cozy mystery.

Which adaptations?

Luckily, there’s a cozy mystery series that meets the bill for this exercise almost perfectly: Miss Marple.

There are a couple of reasons for choosing Miss Marple over Poirot or Monk or any other amateur detective. The first, pragmatic reason is that the series has multiple complete adaptations: the BBC adapted it in the 1980s and then iTV did another series in in the early 2000s.

Also, Miss Marple’s novels are a delight to read. I have cuddled up on many a rainy day with the adventures of the great detective of St. Mary Mead. Miss Marple is snarky and sharp and will absolutely take advantage of your assumptions about old ladies. In 4:50 From Paddington, another character describes her:

Everybody in St Mary Mead knew Miss Marple; fluffy and dithery in appearance, but inwardly as sharp and as shrewd as they make them.

4:50 from Paddington, Agatha christie

How could I not want to spend some more time focusing on her story?

Finally, there are only about a dozen Miss Marples, which is a reasonable volume to read in its entirety. This allows me to do some extra things:

1. Over the course of this series, I’ll trace how Miss Marple evolves over time. I’ll start with the novels, pass through the short story collection, and would love to finish by reading the new short stories).
2. I’ll also compare and contrast the different writing styles and their impact on the reading experience. Christie uses different points of view across the novels, and it’s interesting to explore how that impacts the art of mystery storytelling.
3. Once I’m done, I’ll reflect on the ordering of the episodes in each TV series once I’m done. Each series has a different order, and both are different from the published order of the novels. It will be interesting to explore how that ordering impacts our view of Miss Marple.

What’s next?

So here’s the plan (we will see how well I stick to it!): I’ll start by reading each novel, in the published order, and sharing my thoughts on how well the book holds up, how it establishes Miss Marple (and maybe some other regulars), and any themes or other points that I found particularly notable. I’ll then watch both the BBC and iTV versions and highlight changes made, both major and minor. From here, I’ll consider the process of adaptation: what challenges did the screenwriters face, how did they tackle them, and how did those choices impact the overall outcome and perception of the characters, plot, and themes? (Note that all of these posts will likely contain spoilers – it’s pretty hard to discuss the nitty-gritty of adaptations without them. So, blanket spoiler alert!)

I’m very excited for this – cozy mysteries are great reading for fall, and I’m looking forward to cuddling up with a mug of hot tea and some Great Investigations. Stay cozy, stay curious, and I’ll see you soon!