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| ©ITV - Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple and Wendy Craig as Marjorie Phillpot |
The final episode of Agatha Christie's Marple, starring Julia McKenzie as the title sleuth, will be broadcast in the US on 28th September on PBS. Endless Night, based on the novel by Agatha Christie, is the final episode of the series that has run since 2004, when Marple was played by Geraldine McEwan. Endless Night also marks the 23rd episode in the series, and is Julia McKenzie's eleventh outing as the elderly detective.
This film was written by the late Kevin Elyot, who died earlier this year. He was the man responsible for six Marple films and the writer of some classic Poirot films, including Death on the Nile and Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. Endless Night is produced and directed by David Moore, and co-stars Wendy Craig (The Royal), Tom Hughes (The Lady Vanishes, I am Soldier), Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise), Aneurin Barnard (Cilla, Moonfleet) and Tamzin Outhwaite (New Tricks, Foyle's War).
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ITV plot description :
Following the success of A Caribbean
Mystery and Greenshaw’s Folly, award-winning actress Julia McKenzie
reprises her role as the nation’s favourite spinster sleuth, Miss
Marple, in the latest Agatha Christie adaptation, Endless Night.
Reunited alongside Julia to play young
lovers are Tom Hughes (Cemetery Junction, The Lady Vanishes, Silk) and
Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise, Above Suspicion) who were previously
seen together in the Stephen Poliakoff drama, Dancing on the Edge.
Completing the cast for ITV’s new
adaptation are Aneurin Barnard (Citadel, We’ll Take Manhattan), Birgitte
Hjort Sorensen (Borgen, At World’s End), Glynis Barber (EastEnders,
Dempsey and Makepeace), Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered, My Hero), Tamzin
Outhwaite (Great Expectations, The Fixer), Wendy Craig (Butterflies, The
Forsyte Saga) and Rosalind Halstead (Wuthering Heights, Sherlock).
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| ©ITV - Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple |
Whilst staying with Marjorie (Wendy
Craig), a recently widowed friend, Miss Marple comes across the young
and handsome chauffeur, Mike Rogers (Tom Hughes) – a working-class
charmer, who dreams of more to life than… this.
They quickly strike up a bond, chatting
about local beauty spot, Gypsy’s Acre – to Mike’s eye, the ideal place
to build one’s fantasy home. Despite the asking price being far too
high for a drifter like him, and the alleged gypsy’s curse cast upon the
place, he can’t help but return. But this time, he meets Ellie (Joanna
Vanderham); and several lives are changed forever.
Ellie Goodman is an American heiress, on
the cusp of turning 21, and yearning to escape her closeted existence.
It turns out that opposites do indeed attract, and Mike and Ellie fall
quickly in love, with Gipsy’s Acre being the spot where they set their
hearts on living – with the help of Mike’s childhood friend, Robbie
Hayman (Aneurin Barnard), now a promising architect. The two go back a
long way, and a devoted Robbie longs to pay back Mike for trying, if
unsuccessfully, to save his brother’s life several years before.
Ellie and Mike tie the knot in a secret
ceremony, but it isn’t long before the “vultures descend”, and the pair
have to explain themselves to Ellie’s money-hungry stepmother Cora, and
supercilious lawyer Andrew Lippincott. The only one who shows them any
real support is Greta, previously Ellie’s chaperone – and, before Mike
came along, her only true friend in the world.
The couple have previously been warned
off by the elusive gypsy, Mrs Lee, but they ignore her ancient curses,
and soon Robbie has built them their dream home at Gypsy’s Acre, and
they begin to settle into life in their new secluded existence. Miss
Marple is always on-hand, helping Mike to adjust to his new life –
acting almost as a surrogate mother, since he and his real mum have a
rather strained and distrustful relationship.
The new young couple seem so happy
together, but Ellie can’t get the gypsy’s curse out of her head, and
when she twists her ankle, she leaps at Greta’s offer to come and stay
to keep her company. Mike, on the other hand is not quite so pleased
that their honeymoon idyll has been invaded by an outsider…
Meanwhile, Mrs Lee continues to make her
presence felt, as the happy couple suffer from a targeted campaign of
hatred designed to force them out.
Before long, tragedy strikes when Ellie
is thrown from her horse and dies. A devastated Mike travels to New
York to sort out his late wife’s estate with Lippincott, but then two
more mysterious deaths occur. Only Miss Marple can solve the riddle of
Gypsy’s Acre, but in doing so she must put her own life in very serious
danger…
Cast list:
Julia McKenzie - Miss Marple
Tom Hughes - Mike Rogers
Aneurin Barnard - Robbie Hayman
Joanna Vanderham - Ellie Goodman
Wendy Craig - Marjorie Phillpot
Tamzin Outhwaite - Mrs Rogers
William Hope - Andrew Lippincott
Glynis Barber - Cora Van Stuyvesant
Michael McKell - Frank Stanford
Birgitte Hjort Sorensen - Greta
Hugh Dennis - Dr Shaw
Rosalind Halstead - Claudia Hardcastle
Celyn Jones - Sergeant Keene
Janet Henfrey - Mrs Lee
Stephen Churchett - Coroner
Erick Hayden - Father Jayne
Caroline O'Neill - Passer-by
Endless Night will be broadcast on 28th September in the US on PBS.
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