Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

BaronBl00d There really is not anything wrong with this adaptation. Good acting. More than competent direction. Clever scripting. Nice settings. Joan Hickson. I love Margaret Rutherford and love her Miss Marple movies. I say that unequivocally and unabashedly, BUT Joan Hickson is the embodiment of what Agatha Christie wrote in her Miss Marple novels. Hickson is that good. She is barely in the first hour and a half, here and there - but comes on strong for the final act. Lucky for us most of the detecting is being done by Inspector Craddock played very capably - and nicely - by John Castle. The suspects are all played with unusual skill. Ursala Howells plays a woman who has her house overrun when the local newspaper announces a murder will take place at her home at 7:00. Things go as the newspaper plans - two more people additionally die in the course of the investigation - and red herrings litter the sidewalks where the characters walk in this film. Howells is very good in her role, as is Renee Asheron as her live-in companion. The young leads are all good and easy on the eyes(especially Nicola King). What I really was impressed with was that though this was made for TV, it in no way seems to compromise anything that would stand in its way of putting a cheaper product out there. Much of that credit should go to director David Giles - he has a very professional background preceding this vehicle. At the heart of all this is a quaint village, a cast of victims and suspects, a ripping mystery, and one Joan Hickson as Miss Jane Marple. I love her line to the inspector qualifying why she might be a good person to go nosing about - "An old lady asking questions is just an old lady asking questions. The music is also wonderful.

petsteph1 It's a great mystery, good characters and a pretty good script. Joan Hickson is definitely the most credible of all the Miss Marples and she really brings the character to life. I liked most of the three episodes and the only question I have is this: Couldn't the BBC find any heterosexual actors to play the heterosexual roles??? Watching most of the male supporting cast lisp and wriggle their way thru the scenes was at times excruciating. Given society's current infatuation with those of us who just have to be our mothers or fathers regardless of physical gender, I could understand a casting slip here or there, but for every male romantic lead to be wildly and clumsily gay was just too much. I needed to sit thru every scene to enjoy the wonderful plotting but my respect for the production dropped with every arched eyebrow and unconvincing smile. Would the BBC cast a drag queen as Mike Hammer or an albino as Mahatma Gandhi? Probably. Otherwise a great mystery well adapted for TV and well produced.

bob the moo In the small village of Chipping Cleghorne, the local paper carries a small notice that a murder will be committed that very day at Little Paddocks cottage at 7pm. The residents of the cottage know nothing about it but decide to put on some drinks in case the joker, or anyone else, pops in. Several people do just happen to be "passing by" and pop in shortly before seven. At exactly 7pm a masked man comes in the door shining a torch in everyone's face and saying words along the lines of "hands up" or "this is a robbery". The lights go out and three shots are heard; when they come back on there are bullet holes in the wall, Miss Blacklock has a cut on her ear and the man is dead. Despite it not making any sense at all, it appears to DI Craddock that for some reason the man was trying to kill Miss Blacklock and, when he failed, killed himself. It is all very confusing but when Craddock is advised to speak to a certain Miss Marple, who has some quite helpful insights into the whole affair.Although it runs very long, this entry in the BBC Miss Marple series of films is actually pretty enjoyable and wasn't anything like the long slog I worried it would be. It helps that the plot keeps moving forward well with what seems like a lightening pace in comparison to some of the other Miss Marple films from the same series. As others have commented, the plot may not be the strongest that Christie ever produced but it does provide enough forward motion to keep the film interesting. The conclusion involves loads of revelations that I wasn't overly pleased by because it seemed to just take all the patient investigation done up till then and just p1ss it all up the wall. It is a pain because up till then I had enjoyed the 140 minutes prior but the "out-of-the-blue" stuff meant that I was just being spun a yarn for a while. I still enjoyed it in the delivery but this was a problem.The cast are mostly good. Hickson is the classic Miss Marple and her performance here is as assured as always and she is a good presence. The film doesn't really bring in her until the end of the first hour and it is to the credit of the rest of the cast that I didn't miss her that much. Castle is as reliable as Craddock and it was a strange find to have Whately as his DS (Whately being better known as Morse's Lewis). Howells, Asherson, Sims and others are all very good and I personally was quite taken aback by Samantha Bond – not so much by her performance but more by the fact that she only looks slightly older twenty years later.Overall this is quite a good Miss Marple that has a strong plot and a consistently well-paced delivery. The cast are all up to the task and it feels quite brisk and engaging up till the end when all the rabbits are pulled out of hats and I struggled to keep up with it or indeed work out why I should given that the final scenes seemed to be separate from the rest of the film. Still enjoyable but 160 minutes is a long time to stick with something and then feel a bit cheated at the end.

Raquel Like Jack who commented before me here, I saw this show over Christmas on UKTV Drama. I had never seen the Joan Hickson adaptations before now and when I saw the recent ITV Marple's I was told to watch the old BBC adaptations as they are far superior, and they are.I feel the ITV versions are almost played as farcical comedy whereas the BBC versions are more serious and are far more intriguing and allowing you to get involved in the mystery and none more so than in 'A Murder Is Announced'. I literally had no idea who the culprit was right up until the very end and it was certainly a complex mystery, but an excellent one.This was originally shown over 3 nights in 1985 however I saw it all in one 3 hour viewing, yet it certainly did not feel like that at all. Joan Hickson is brilliant as Miss Marple. The Geraldine McEwan take on Miss Marple is almost amateurish in comparison. The supporting cast here, including Joan Sims, Kevin Whately and Samantha Bond are all excellent and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has not yet seen it.