The words themselves never change too much (although there was a very famous musical created out of Comedy of Errors where there were more substantial changes), but the entertainment experience can be very different. There’s always something interesting to watch as different productions with different actors can bring out unexpected subtleties. Until a few years ago, I used to go to the RSC’s latest interpretations of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Nevertheless, it’s reasonably enjoyable.Īnd now a moment of reflection. The safety of all involved depends on the killer coming up with something not immediately fatal, so this scenario is all a bit contrived to let everyone emerge unscathed. The trap for the murderer is all you would expect, but I can’t say as I like the staged suicide. I could have done without the knowing opening sequence showing the arrival of the Burtons in their red sportscar, but this script sat back and allowed the story to unfold at a steady pace. Although they are all caricatures, this village is not quite a jarring as some of the others we’ve been exposed to. The casting of Ken Russell and Francis de la Tour as the Calthrops is faintly hilarious, but everyone else, surprisingly including Harry Enfield as the prissy solicitor, is held back.

I suppose it does give him more to chew on as he recovers both physically and emotionally in the backwater village of Lymstock. The primary point of view falls to Jerry Burton ( James D’Arcy) who failed to end it all on his motorbike (instead of crashing his plane in the original novel). Anyway, this has Geraldine McEwan’s Marple rather more in the background, wandering around, often looking a bit dotty, but able to make pithy remarks of substance every now and again to show her brain is still working. You can always hope you have the worst behind you. Although this is not saying much, given the awfulness that has gone before, there was just enough encouragement. It was a close-run decision whether to continue watching but, as it turned out, The Moving Finger was the best of the series so far.

The moving finger geraldine mcewan