A surprisingly unflattering photo of the cast of Marple: The Secret of Chimneys Copyright ITV 2010
The cast is far too small and stretched too thin. The butler Treadwell from the book is now a housekeeper and composite of 3 other characters, cousins become sisters, politicians become love interests, and on and on. Even the picture of the "last great party" has surprisingly few guests: there are far more servants, musicians, and waiters in that photo than high society ladies and gentlemen. As a result, the atmosphere is flat and the identity of the murderer is virtually revealed before the opening credits are finished.
The jewel thief sub-plot involving Anthony Cade and Virginia Revel, the original hero and heroine of The Secret of Chimneys, is laughable. If actors Charlotte Salt and Jonas Armstrong weren't good looking the romance that develops between the two characters would be equally incomprehensible. The matrimonial machinations of the now lecherous George Lomax are just distasteful. Another unfortunate consequence of the adaptation is the introduction of a new character, Miss Hilda Blenkinstopp from a National Trust like preservation society wanting to add Chimneys to it's list of historic properties. Despite being played by the talented Ruth Jones, this character doesn't really add anything of value to the story and is blatantly necessary to shoehorn Julia McKenzie's Miss Marple into the story.
Ultimately it is the presence of Miss Marple that is the biggest problem with Marple: The Secret of Chimneys. The source material indicates the need for a detective of action, or at least a detective with a side-kick of action: Poirot or Tommy and Tuppence come to mind. At the very least the writers should have had Miss Marple's nephew Raymond present to do some heavy lifting and brawling. Really, everything that was exciting and interesting from the book had to be eliminated to turn this into a tea and crumpets caper.
Despite all this I did like Marple: The Secret of Chimneys enough. Being a fan, but not a purist, I can appreciate the Miss Marple Chimney's for what it is worth. While not up to the standard of the source material, the producers seem to have done what I feel Christie often did with her short stories: taking an idea she's already worked on (or perhaps was working on) and giving it a slight spin and looking at it in a different way. If you consider the book and the movie as being two separate but not entirely unrelated stories, you'll be mildly entertained with the results.
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