June Whitfield returns as Miss Marple on BBC Radio 4

The 89 year-old actress is returning to play the iconic character to mark the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s birth.

(c) BBC - June Whitfield as Miss Jane Marple 

June Whitfield will star as elderly amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple in “Miss Marple’s Final Cases”, a new three part radio drama series on BBC Radio 4. The series has been adapted from Agatha Christie’s short stories by Joy Wilkinson, who has adapted many of the author’s works for BBC Radio 4 in the past, including Endless Night and Crooked House.

June has previously played the character in all twelve Miss Marple novels on radio in the 1990s and is now returning to play the character for the final time. The actress describes the characters as “an extraordinary person because she has a talent for solving mysteries”.

Joy Wilkinson wrote a blog for the BBC Writersroom website saying, “This year, to mark Christie’s 125th anniversary, I finally got the chance to do a Marple. All the Marple novels had been done on radio and TV, so people knew them inside and out. What could I add? That temptation arose to do something different.”

The first of the thirty minute radio dramas is based on the short story “Tape-Measure Murder” from the collection of stories “Miss Marple’s Final Cases”.

Here’s the BBC’s description of the episode:

“Marking the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth this month, June Whitfield reprises her role as Miss Marple on BBC Radio 4 in the first of three new dramas by Joy Wilkinson. In episode one, rumours of a murdered wife and a husband under suspicion spread through St Mary Mead, and then Miss Marple is called as an alibi.”

The episode is written by Joy Wilkinson, and produced and directed by Gemma Jenkins for the BBC. It stars June Whitfield as Miss Marple; Rosie Cavaliero as Bunch; Stephen Critchlow as Inspector Slack; Jessica Turner as Miss Hartnell; Alison Pettitt as Miss Politt; Sam Dale as Mr Spenlow; and Chris Pavlo as Ted Gerard.

It's great to see that June Whitfield is revisiting Miss Marple this year, as we've already enjoyed a fresh adaptation of Christie's married sleuths Tommy and Tuppence this year, and will also look forward to seeing a new version of And Then There Were None too. It's safe to say that the BBC is Agatha Christie's new home.

The first episode will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 16th September at 11.30 am. If you miss it, you can catch up on BBC Iplayer Radio.

Six Agatha Christie Radio Dramas Coming Soon

Six "new" BBC Radio drama adaptations of Agatha's Christie's works are to be released on CD in the coming months.

The first radio drama collection is "Agatha Christie: The Lost Plays" which is a collection of three full cast radio dramas that are believed to have been lost for half a century and recently rediscovered and remastered. Two of them were written specifically for radio by Agatha Christie and one is an adaptation of her novel "Murder in the Mews".

Here's the BBC CD's product description:

“A triple bill of archive BBC radio dramas, believed lost for over half a century and only recently rediscovered. Butter in a Lordly Dish, written specially for radio in 1948, features Richard Williams as Sir Luke Enderby KC, whose infidelities lead him into trouble when he goes to meet his latest flame. Williams also stars as Hercule Poirot in Murder in the Mews, a 1955 adaptation of a short story. A young woman is found dead in her flat, the day after Guy Fawkes night. Did she die by her own hand, or someone else's? In Personal Call, also written specially for radio by Agatha Christie, a disturbing telephone call from a woman named Fay has consequences for both Richard Brent and his wife Pam. This 1960 production stars Ivan Brandt and Barbara Lott.”

This collection is available to pre-order from the BBC Shop and Amazon.co.uk now and will be released on September 3rd 2015. It is clearly a must-have for Agatha Christie fans - a collection of classic radio dramas that have been lost and rediscovered.

Then there’s also a set of new radio dramas from the BBC to be released on CD in November. Acclaimed actress June Whitfield is returning to play Agatha Christie's renowned sleuth Miss Marple in three brand new radio plays based on the collection of short stories “Miss Marple’s Final Cases”. June Whitfield completed recording the twelve Miss Marple novels back in 2001, and is now returning again to play the character in some new adaptations of Miss Marple short stories for BBC Radio.

Here’s the CD’s product description:

“June Whitfield stars as Miss Marple in three brand new BBC Radio 4 dramatisations. The short stories on which the adaptations are based were published in a variety of magazines during Agatha Christie's lifetime, and then collected posthumously as the book Miss Marple's Final Cases. Duration: 2 hours 30”

It is possible that the three radio dramas will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the coming months, but this is not confirmed. However, I must say that I am pleased that June Whitfield is returning to play Miss Marple in some new radio dramas as it’s great to see (or rather hear) the character back on radio again. Each episode will be 50 minutes long and are all full cast BBC radio adaptations starring June Whitfield as Miss Marple. The audio CD is due to be released on November 5th 2015 and is available to pre-order on Amazon.co.uk. Therefore it is likely that the radio plays will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the coming months.

Are you excited about these “new” radio dramas? Leave a comment below or tweet me @AChristieWeb