Gwenda and Giles visit his friend Raymond West (David McAlister) in the city, where they meet West's aunt Miss Marple. A series of incidents, in which Gwenda discovers that she knows something about the house's past that she shouldn't leaves her unnerved. The couple buys the home, and Gwenda tries to ignore the strong feeling that someone died in the house, at the bottom of the stairs. Driving on a country road, Gwenda spots a large, old house for sale and falls in love with the property. 'Sleeping Murder' begins as Giles Reed (John Moulder-Brown) has returned to England from New Zealand with his new wife Gwenda (Geraldine Alexander). The writers are confident enough to let others speak. Joan Hickson is very good in both, and I did not get the feeling that she had been pushed into too many scenes because she is the 'star', as is often the case in the remakes. '4:50 from Paddington' is perhaps a little better. It does feature one of Agatha Christie's most attractive young couples, however, as they are portrayed onscreen, Gwenda and Giles Reed. Had he been more subtle, this mystery would be more enjoyable.

The performance by the guilty party is overplayed, which I blame on director John Davies.

'Sleeping Murder' involves a cold case, and the villain is unfortunately obvious from the start, leading the audience to think the characters a bit slow in figuring things out. Though Christie's plots can stretch credulity, they are not anachronistic, as the remakes were, making these true period pieces set in the 1950s. These adaptations of Christie's novels adhere more closely to the original plots than the remakes. A detective must be out of the ordinary in some way to keep us interested, and Joan Hickson's Miss Marple is. She is confident in her superior intellect. She embodies that quality that Agatha Christie cited in her own aunt: she always expects the worst of everyone. Though Hickson was a little too old for the role, her Miss Marple had more personality and comes across as sharp. I appreciate Joan Hickson's portrayal more now than I did in the 1980s, because I have since seen Geraldine McEwan's (2004-2008) batty interpretation and Julia McKenzie's (2008-2013) bland, grandmotherly Miss Marple in the recent remakes for 'Masterpiece Mystery'. Both films were produced in 1987 and each are about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. 'Sleeping Murder and '4:50 from Paddington' were both part of PBS' popular 'Mystery!' series in the 1980s and featured Joan Hickson as Agatha Christie's spinster village sleuth Miss Jane Marple.

Miss marple sleeping murder