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Rating: 
Summary: A rare collection of Aunt Jane?s
Review: "Body in the Library"Mrs. Dolly Bantry (Gwen Watford) tries to inform her husband of the reported body and is accused of imagining the report due to reading trashy books in bead at night. As usual Jane is always in the right place to view the potential suspects. Clues are everywhere yet who would mix body's and books?
Speaking about night I would not start this film to late, as it seems to go on forever at 151 minutes. As it was a made for TV (1984), I suspect that this movie is a composite of a series. And there are places where it takes leaps to different situations with out any transition. You can guess the plot in general but the details are surprising. It is wrapped up so quickly that you will need to run the ending a few times to put it all in perspective "A Murder is Announced" A man dies in Chipping Kleghorn under mysterious circumstances and suddenly Aunt Jane is coming to stay. As with most Agatha Christie's movies, everybody and nobody could have done it. Miss Jane Marple is the catalyst that helps Inspector Craddock (John Castle) and others to view the situation differently and extrapolate the "who" that done it.
It is interesting that the inspector in some movies, is related to Jane and in other movies not. Inspector Craddock here is interesting as he is polite and tolerant of the people he is interrogating.
It is fun to try and match the real names of the actors with the part that they are playing. Would you suspect that Hannah is (Elaine Ives-Cameron)? Or that Miss Hinchcliffe is (Paola Dionisotti)?
Anyway keep your eyes open, as there is not a wasted movement or word in this movie. "A Pocket Full of Rye" Rex Fortescue is out of character as he arrives at is office. You immediately know something is wrong because this is England and Rex has ordered his tea much too early. Yep mean old nasty Rex is found dead. Thorough detectives have determined that there was some mysterious grain in his pocket. If you remember the nursery rime you can follow the story. So how does Jane become involved? She trained the maid and is afraid for her safety. Naturally at several places in the mystery Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) points out the obvious to Det. Sergeant Hay (Jon Glover) who realizes and corrects the error of not listening to her.
There is only one repugnant scene where you have to watch Rex eat. Other than that it is a thoroughly enjoyable mystery.
Rating:
Summary: A rare collection of Aunt Jane¿s
Review: "Body in the Library" Mrs. Dolly Bantry (Gwen Watford) tries to inform her husband of the reported body and is accused of imagining the report due to reading trashy books in bead at night. As usual Jane is always in the right place to view the potential suspects. Clues are everywhere yet who would mix body's and books?
Speaking about night I would not start this film to late, as it seems to go on forever at 151 minutes. As it was a made for TV (1984), I suspect that this movie is a composite of a series. And there are places where it takes leaps to different situations with out any transition. You can guess the plot in general but the details are surprising. It is wrapped up so quickly that you will need to run the ending a few times to put it all in perspective "A Murder is Announced" A man dies in Chipping Kleghorn under mysterious circumstances and suddenly Aunt Jane is coming to stay. As with most Agatha Christie's movies, everybody and nobody could have done it. Miss Jane Marple is the catalyst that helps Inspector Craddock (John Castle) and others to view the situation differently and extrapolate the "who" that done it.
It is interesting that the inspector in some movies, is related to Jane and in other movies not. Inspector Craddock here is interesting as he is polite and tolerant of the people he is interrogating.
It is fun to try and match the real names of the actors with the part that they are playing. Would you suspect that Hannah is (Elaine Ives-Cameron)? Or that Miss Hinchcliffe is (Paola Dionisotti)?
Anyway keep your eyes open, as there is not a wasted movement or word in this movie. "A Pocket Full of Rye" Rex Fortescue is out of character as he arrives at is office. You immediately know something is wrong because this is England and Rex has ordered his tea much too early. Yep mean old nasty Rex is found dead. Thorough detectives have determined that there was some mysterious grain in his pocket. If you remember the nursery rime you can follow the story. So how does Jane become involved? She trained the maid and is afraid for her safety. Naturally at several places in the mystery Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) points out the obvious to Det. Sergeant Hay (Jon Glover) who realizes and corrects the error of not listening to her.
There is only one repugnant scene where you have to watch Rex eat. Other than that it is a thoroughly enjoyable mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful mysteries; horrible DVD transfers
Review: I love the Miss Marple mysteries in both book and movie form, but unfortunately not a one of them has been transferred properly to video or DVD. While this BBC set of the longer Marple mysteries looks somewhat better than the two A&E sets, they're still pretty bad. The main reason for this (apart from the BBC's obvious indifference to whole matter) is that the transfer material is SEVERAL generations removed from the negative. The result: loads of grain, overall dark and muddy look, little detail, washed out highlights, faded color, dirt, occasional wavering picture, focus problems (except for most closeups, many long shots look as if NOTHING is in focus), contrast problems (floors and people's legs disappear into the blackness--caused by using a copy of a copy of a copy, etc.) I don't know if the BBC treats all of their projects this way or if they just have a thing against poor Miss Marple, but they need to hear from us. People should not receive defective merchandise for their money. One of the most irritating things about this set is that each movie is split up into 3 episodes, each with the same opening and closing credits, just like they are broadcast on TV. Of course, the viewer can fastforward through this, but it was a stupid thing to do, and it's just another indicator of the lack of care in making this set of DVDs. It's wonderful to have these mysteries available again on video, but it's aggravating to see the indifference of big business to its customers and to its own product. Buyer beware!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful mysteries; horrible DVD transfers
Review: I love the Miss Marple mysteries in both book and movie form, but unfortunately not a one of them has been transferred properly to video or DVD. While this BBC set of the longer Marple mysteries looks somewhat better than the two A&E sets, they're still pretty bad. The main reason for this (apart from the BBC's obvious indifference to whole matter) is that the transfer material is SEVERAL generations removed from the negative. The result: loads of grain, overall dark and muddy look, little detail, washed out highlights, faded color, dirt, occasional wavering picture, focus problems (except for most closeups, many long shots look as if NOTHING is in focus), contrast problems (floors and people's legs disappear into the blackness--caused by using a copy of a copy of a copy, etc.) I don't know if the BBC treats all of their projects this way or if they just have a thing against poor Miss Marple, but they need to hear from us. People should not receive defective merchandise for their money. One of the most irritating things about this set is that each movie is split up into 3 episodes, each with the same opening and closing credits, just like they are broadcast on TV. Of course, the viewer can fastforward through this, but it was a stupid thing to do, and it's just another indicator of the lack of care in making this set of DVDs. It's wonderful to have these mysteries available again on video, but it's aggravating to see the indifference of big business to its customers and to its own product. Buyer beware!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: My 3 favorite Miss Marple programs. Video quality excellent. If they had left off all the ads at the beginning of each CD it would have been even better. A nice value.
Rating:
Summary: Must have for Marple fans
Review: My 3 favorite Miss Marple programs. Video quality excellent. If they had left off all the ads at the beginning of each CD it would have been even better. A nice value.
Rating: 
Summary: charming tea time
Review: My favorite Miss Marple film is BODY IN THE LIBRARY, which is included in this set. First off, unlike for some other reviewers, the films are crisp, no dark multi-gen'd versions on my disks. Re the set appearance itself, quite charming overall, as if one should sit down with coffee, tea or cocoa while perusing. The individual disk decor is lovely, with photos from the particular installment, and the disks contain chaptering of the installments (you can elect to view all three eps on disk 1 & 2 in one go or do it on an individual basis). The real drawback with high irritation factor is the BBC-A ads that appear at the beginning of each disk, you can fast-forward through both, but really they shouldn't be there at all. One point of possible confusion is John Castle, who played Miss Marple's inspector nephew elsewhere is actually an inspector of non-relation in A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED. The introduction of the Inspector Slagg character, who resented Miss Marple's detecting skills, is introduced in BODY IN THE LIBRARY. There is also - on Disk 3 - which contains the two-parter of POCKETFUL OF RYE - a half-hour documentary on the birthplace of Agatha Christie celebrating the centenary of her birth. In this, the Orient Express makes an appearance as well as the actors who played Marple and Poirot (david suchet) appearing in character and meeting each other formally and for the first time.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: My Gift Set Miss Marple DVD collection is of excellent quality. Miss Marple is my favorite Christie sleuth and I am so pleased to have these episodes (Body in the Library, Pocket Full of Rye, Murder is Announced) on DVD. I noticed no grainy quality whatsoever. There are a few ads in the beginning and the episodes are individually split up into separate parts as in when they were broadcast on TV but these facts really did not bother me. I especially enjoyed the "Who's Who" feature which gave brief bios of the BBC actors. All-in-all very enjoyable!
Rating:
Summary: Splendid showcase
Review: Restricting my comments to the quality of the 3-disc release: I was very worried, based on a review published here, that the video quality of this product might be poor. It isn't; in fact, it's very good. I don't know why the reviewer would have complained about this unless his/her copy of the DVD was really as poor as described, which I have to accept that it was. All I can say is, mine isn't. A couple of nights ago, one of our Bay Area PBS channels did re-broadcast one of the 3-part episodes on this disc, and the quality of their print was awful. So, I can tell the difference between grainy and spotty on the one hand, and sharp and clear on the other...it's quite plain on my equipment, which is only average. Unlike the other reviewer's, my discs are quite sharp.
Rating:
Summary: Great fun
Review: To begin, Joan Hickson is marvelous as Miss Marple--even better than Margaret Rutherford--no easy task!
The three story's in this set are quite good-though I found the first story-"The Body in the Library"-moved along a little too slowly for my taste. No such problem with the other two stories however. "A Murder is announced" is the best of the three episodes--in which an announcement of a pending murder is placed in the local newspaper. "A Pocketfull of Rye" is also an excellent story--which I especially enjoyed because of Peter Davison--better known as Tristan in "All Creatures Great and Small" as well as portraying "Doctor Who"
These storys are great to watch in a group setting--trying to figure out among yourselves "Who done it"
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