Miss Marple takes rather a back seat in this mystery and hands over a lot of the spadework to the efficient Lucy Eylesbarrow who goes to Rutherford Hall to investigate the murder seen by Mrs McGillicuddy on the train. This story actually had quite a reasonable outing in the Margaret Rutherford film 'Murder She Said' (easily the best of that series) and the more recent McEwen version was, in my opinion, extremely good.
For the BBC, Hickson is excellent as always and there is good sense of tension, particularly in the build up to the finding of the body. I thought the incidental music in 'Paddington' was particularly good (again especially when the body is found) and the general melancholy tone of the piece is very appropriate. Casting is a bit mixed but Joanna David is very good as downtrodden Emma and Mona Bruce is appropriately solid and respectable as Mrs McGillicuddy. Jill Meager's Lucy suffers a little in comparison with her ITV counterpart and (bizarrely) Maurice Denham's Luther can't quite compete with James Robertson Justice for Rutherford! As an aside, why is Lucy even remotely attracted to the dreadful satyr that is John Hallam's Cedric? This version of Paddington is good but no better, in my opinion than the McEwen version...and even the Rutherford has its merits!
For the BBC, Hickson is excellent as always and there is good sense of tension, particularly in the build up to the finding of the body. I thought the incidental music in 'Paddington' was particularly good (again especially when the body is found) and the general melancholy tone of the piece is very appropriate. Casting is a bit mixed but Joanna David is very good as downtrodden Emma and Mona Bruce is appropriately solid and respectable as Mrs McGillicuddy. Jill Meager's Lucy suffers a little in comparison with her ITV counterpart and (bizarrely) Maurice Denham's Luther can't quite compete with James Robertson Justice for Rutherford! As an aside, why is Lucy even remotely attracted to the dreadful satyr that is John Hallam's Cedric? This version of Paddington is good but no better, in my opinion than the McEwen version...and even the Rutherford has its merits!