And finally we get to the finale – the Best Miss Marple Novel. And, the Best Miss Marple Portrayal (of which there surprisingly aren’t that many). And possibly the result of the Most Predictable Poll Ever – although arguably there could be a dead heat there…
Best Portrayal
Poor old Angela Lansbury. But basically the only person who put up any sort of competition was Margaret Rutherford for her entertaining interpretation of Miss Marple. But there was only ever going to be one winner here – hurrah for the late, great Joan Hickson.
Best Novel
Here’s the results of the earlier rounds – Round One, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals.
So A Pocket Full Of Rye (shame), A Caribbean Mystery (bit of a shame), At Bertram’s Hotel (bleh!) and They Do It With Mirrors (double bleh!) fell in the first round and then we came to the knockout round.
And the final – well, there was no competition, was there. I could probably have told you this from the start of the poll – A Murder Is Announced is the best Miss Marple novel. Huge surprise.
So that’s it for the polls for now – I’m really not sure that there are any other categories that enough people are well enough informed about. Maybe we’ll hit Carr at some point… but not for a while.
So, thanks for playing – and remember it’s now official – The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd is the best Poirot, A Murder Is Announced is the best Marple and Sparkling Cyanide is the best non-island based non-series novel. And you can quote me – and yourselves – on that.
Well done chum – great fun and scientific too!
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Oh, dear! Sparkling Cyanide? Really?!? Well, if your poll says it, it must be true!
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Well, I believe you are planning to review Sparkling Cyanide.
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I’d actually go with Geraldine McEwan, Helen Hayes, or Angela Landsbury over Margaret Rutherford. Margaret’s Miss Marple is fun, yes, but absolutely nothing like what I imagine Miss Marple to be like. I haven’t seen all of the Julia McKenzie episodes yet, so I withhold judgment on her. But–yes, Joan Hickson is the best!
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I like Julia McKenzie’s Marple more than the rest but you’re quite right – Joan Hickson just IS Jane Marple. The faithfulness of the adaptations helps as well.
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