themysterybloggers

2008-01-21T14:53:00.001-08:00

Missy Marple is back... but is this the right blog I wonder? I'll have to do some sleuthing!

2007-05-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

BAD NEWS FOLKS!

Oh dear, there really was just one more thing on the news that Peter Falk was in London. Sadly due to ill health our dear Columbo is unable to make an appearence!

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=4124379

Sorry if we got your hopes up fans.

2007-05-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

COLUMBO IN THE CITY!!!

Can you believe it Columbo fans? Peter Falk is appearing at Waterstones on Piccadilly this Thursday 31 May!

Missy Marple and I'll be there cheering him on. Perhaps we could all shout ROSEBUD! in unison.

Just one more thing...will he be wearing the mack?

2007-04-09T01:45:00.000-07:00

MARPLE JUST BUTT OUT!

Don't you just loathe the new "Marple"? I have been restrained when discussing the new Marple in the past. However after watching several episodes of the new Marple (note the missing Miss, which upsets me greatly), I have come to be increasingly annoyed with her meddling.

Never before have I felt that Miss Marple was a meddler. Take "By the Pricking of My Thumbs". In the book this is a Tommy and Tuppence case. Tuppence is strong enough and bold enough to go hunting around the countryside for the missing Mrs Lancaster and the spooky house depicted in the painting left to her by her husband's aunt. It is creepy read, with Tuppence finding the house and creeping around it, discovering the china doll in the chimney piece, and eventually discovering Mrs Lancaster hiding in an annex of the house. There are rumours of child abuse and kidnapping, and it's all very scary.

So how come ITV turned this sinister tale into a cartooned Marple episode? Oh it angers me, that Tuppence played by Greta Scattchi is portrayed as a drunk, unappreciated by her husband Tommy, and to top it all Tuppence has to deal with an increasingly doddery Miss Marple. Miss Marple is the shrewdest detective I know. Ok sometimes she played the fool, but she was never doddery. And just to end, the evil child catching Mrs Lancaster, is dressed up as red riding hood, with not even a hit of menace.

Listen ITV stop mixing up Agatha Christie's detectives. Honestly one of these days Miss Marple will find herself interfering in one of Poirot's cases and then ITV will have a guilty conscience. Just imagine it, it wouldn't be pleasant!

2007-03-10T12:14:00.000-08:00

Poirot vs Cadfael

Have you been tuning into BBC 7 mystery lovers? If you have you'll see we have been doubly rewarded with some Poirot and Cadfael. As ever i am utterly spoilt to the point of not knowing which to listen to first, and whether i should listen to the episodes in one go or...oh it's sometimes too much!

First we had Three Act Tragedy - remember Tony Curtis's turn in the Hollywood version (best forgotten)

Then Taken at the Flood, which i didn't get to the end of because i was too busy listening to the Cadfael mystery The Virgin in the Ice - see what i mean there are only so many hours in a day!

Now after finishing off listening to Evil Under The Sun yes that's the fake tan mystery, (Missy Marple certainly been involved in a few of those!) I learn that's it for Poirot for another few months. I say bring us Agatha Christie FM!

Well i guess it leaves me to concentrate on listening to the latest Cadfael mystery Monk's Hood - Missy Marple gained much comfort from this while in wintry Warsaw many moons ago! This mystery delves into the makings of the English Legal System, founded by the Welsh no less. Missy Marple is this blog's Welsh expert, so i'll leave the rest to her.

2007-01-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

Hey Stop Press!

Pauline Fowler that battleaxe from Eastenders has ben postumously revealed as a Columbo fan!

Martin Fowler did a poor impression of the slovenly sleuth for his ex wife Sonia in a vain attempt to trap her as his mother's murderer - bad show Mar - in!

2006-11-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

Another Columbo muddle this time not mine!

I once knew a girl once had a boyfriend who was quite obnoxious (The Cowgirl Sleuther pulls no punches) . Anyway they got into an argument about the term simulacrum (young love heh?). My mate used the example of the word “Rosebud” in “Citizen Kane” as a simulacrum, Unfortunately the argument about whether or not Rosebud was a simulacrum became quite heated. The boyfriend’s memories of Citizen Kane didn’t seem to add up or compare to my friend’s memories of the epic film. Step in to the fray, the Cowgirl Sleuther, ready to break up the fight. I asked the man what his memories of Citizen Kane were. For all his arrogance and supposed superior film knowledge, the poor man had confused scenes from a Columbo mystery with this grand old man of cinema!
Yes folks the boyfriend had been thinking of “How to Dial a Murder”, where a man kills his business partner by teaching his pet Dobermans to kill on s single word command, this word being ROSEBUD!

2006-11-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

COLUMBO CONFUSION!

Are you a Columbo fan? Being a fan though doesn’t always mean crisp strong memories of the man in the mac.

I’m a fan, but while doing some research on the New York detective, I realised that my knowledge and memory of Columbo is quite confused.

Take for instance the episode entitled “Try and Catch Me”. My memory is of an old lady being locked in her own safe by her errant nephew, who is also an identical twin. The keys to the safe are buried in sand inside a horrible freestanding ash tray (in the shape of a Doric column), nasty.

However after refreshing my knowledge of Columbo episodes on the fab website http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/ I realised I had got it all confused.

What really happens in “Try and Catch Me” is this:

The old lady shuts her nephew-in-law up in the safe to avenge the death of her beloved niece. And he isn’t a twin; I’ve confused that with the twins played by Martin Landau in “Double Shock”, who, to digress, kill their uncle.

Anyway what’s the point of this babble I’m spouting? Well there is no real point. But it show’s you how strange one’s memories of your favourite shows can become tangled. If one is going to be a good detective, your memory of events and what people have told you must be sharp! Poirot or Columbo for that matter would never be so foolish.

Being able to convey your memories is important too. For instance after I told my mate Gazza about the Columbo episode featuring the safe, he said, “That’s the Columbo episode that pops into my mind when I think of Columbo”. He was then able to articulate his memories to me he just needed a push. He went onto tell me all these details about the plot concerning a light bulb, a scratched arrow on the wall and a rolled up piece of paper. All I could remember was the door shutting and the keys being buried and even then I got that all mixed up too.
What’s your favourite Columbo memory and is it correct?

2006-09-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Double Helpings of Agatha!

Howdy mystery fans! I was recently listening to a nice double helping of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. It made me think how considerate the schedulers at BBC 7 were being. I can tell you there's nothing quite like logging on and seeing that your favourite mystery writer is being dished up to you in your favourite format. Nothing quite does it like an auido book can, (unless of course the final tape is missing, which happened to me recently with "Appointment with Death", most distressing!). An Agatha high is what i've dubbed that feeling!

However these double helpings of Christie's great sleuthers can go horribly wrong as both myself and Missy Marple can testify. Imagine, Christmas 2005, you've got your Radio Times in front of you. You give it a glance and lo and behold a Joan Hickson Miss Marple is running every week on BB2. You jump for joy! Until you notice that Ustinov Poirot films are running on Channel 4!!!

Yes your thinking of course i'll set the video, but as Missy Marple put it "Who's the sadist doing the Christmas Agatha Christie scheduling?!

2006-09-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

Tommy and Tuppence!

You can't beat a bit of Tommy and Tuppence on TV, can you? They happily work together as a crime-fighting duo, looking fabulous in their 20s garb (aided by the 80s soft-focus production!)
Tommy and Tuppence are a unique husband and wife team - getting into scrapes together. Its a genuine partnership with both being equal in the fight against crime. It's all so refreshing compared to more 'modern' crime-fighting dramas where you need to come from a dysfunctional family background - divorced, moody etc etc...(Cracker, Morse, Vincent, Frost blah blah blah...)
Plus I love the clothes!

2006-09-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

The mystery face-off!

BBC7 are broadcasting an Agatha Christie double-bill this week.

In the blue corner we have Poirot with his little grey cells and trusty side-kick Hastings in the classic 'Lord Edgeware Dies' - If only Carlotta Adams hadn't been such an exellent impersonator then she might have lived to tell the tale. Instead, she's a cunning cog in a very cunning murder and ends up victim #2. So who's the murderer? You'll have to tune in!

In the red corner we have Miss Marple and her 'Murder at the Vicarage' - a shot is heard while our heroine is weeding her garden. No doubt she'll be weeding out the red herrings and tracking down the murderer in time to get home for a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake. St Mary Mead sounds like a jolly nice place to live, if it wasn't for all these pesky murders!

So, if there was a virtual mystery wrestling match between 'Masher Marple' and 'Half-Nelson Poirot' who would win?? I'm on Marple's side because at least you get cake when you're in her gang...

Anyway, mop those sweaty brows and get those gum-shields in! Ding ding - Round 2!

2006-08-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

Barnaby's still in the dark!

This is Detective Inspector Barnaby. Has he finally twigged that Mrs Barnaby and his daughter Cully (where did they get that name) are both responsible for all the Midsommer Murders?

I ask you they drive around in that mobile library (a good disguise) despatching with all the posh unfortuantes who live in these viallges.

Bergerac would never have put up with such nonsense!

2006-08-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

Moonstone Mystery
Hey there mystery gang!
There's a fab serial of Wilkie Collin's 'The Moonstone' this week on BBC7. I think mysteries in the 21st Century really are lacking cursed gemstones. What's happened to them all?

2006-08-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

Bong! The Cowgirl Sleuther’s Monk Research Trip

Dear readers, I have recently returned from a monk research trip in the South of France. There I visited troglodyte monastic caves a medieval herb garden and a medieval castle. What glee I had in my tour of such places. It really put me in touch with Cadfael’s spirit. I even visited the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, where Pope Urbain V dispatched crusades. Those who like accuracy when it comes to dates will pull me up short here and say that these crusades where long after the ones Cadfael was on, but what’s a crusade between friends?

Here's the Cowgirl sleuther posing as a lowly prior with my Abbot Babe Bitchford

2006-07-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

BONG!!!
WHO NEEDS FORENSICS WHEN CADFAEL'S ABOUT?

Why are TV producers wasting their time producing endlessly tiresome forensic dramas? Waking the Dead, Silent Witness... yawn yawn? We all know science is not a substitute for a good mystery-solving mind!
Cadfael, for instance, needs no microscopes or body-fluid samples. He simply gets the job done through careful deduction (the vital clue usually involves a rare herb found under the victim's fingernail). Before you know it - BONG! - that crafty medieval monk has solved the crime and they can return to the monastry ready for matins and a nice cup of mead.

2006-07-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

Just one more thing....

I was gadding about Southwark, ducking and diving, and I discovered this street named after my favourite detective.

I want to explore more streets named after our mystery-solving heros.... so watch this space

2006-07-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

By Timothy! Paul Temple's back!

Thank heavens for BBC7 and its resurrection of classic radio crime capers! I've been getting really into the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries and Paul Temple's crime-fighting efforts, usually concerning opium-smuggling and hood-winking a glamorous flapper. I love the heros' cut glass accents and the 'go'r blimey gov' of their lower class side-kicks. Rest-assured it all ends up fine and dandy in the end. Rescue a few more of these long-lost programmes from the vaults BBC7 - they are simply spiffing!!

2006-07-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

Can Dr Mark Sloane fill Perry Mason's boots?

Nothing can beat the swaggering drama and build up of the Perry Mason theme tune. It captures the drama of the courtroom and the thrill of the chase...

The theme sums up Perry Mason - 80s courtroom drama chockablock with perms and shoulder pads. Perry, is so darn good, with his trusty cuddly legal secretary and his permed action-side-kick who gets into scrapes and arrives with a vital clue at the last minute (phew!), he always gets the job done. And it feels like a meaty mystery - a feature length trawl through double bluffs - and I feel satisfied after a feast on a Mason mystery.

Diagnosis Murder, on the other hand, is wafer-thin and leaves me hungry for more mystery! Dick van Dyke has got the action side-kick in the form of his son Barry, who plays a cop, but the hospital/police action really doesn't gel together. Plus he always manages to get a dance in somehow? It does make me laugh though, the credits feature a stethoscope and a magnifying glass (how long did it take to come up with that?).
Diagnosis Murder's website hilariously comments that CBS have stopped making new episodes of Diagnosis Murder because 'research revealed the average viewer has stopped watching'... Er... so does that just leave me guys?

2006-07-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Poirot's gone all serious and lost his 'do-do-do-do-dooo'!

Further to the Cowgirl Sleuth's comments, I am alarmed at how serious ITV have made Poirot.

Surely ITV are missing the point. Poirot is a ridiculous character, with an egg shaped head, fastidious dress sense (a serious case of OCD if you ask me) and a silly waxed moustashe. But as we're smiling at his pomposity, he cuts in and solves the mystery with his 'little grey cells'.

The old version of David Suchet's Poirot was light-hearted, with the gloriously intriguing 'do-do do-do-dooo's' of the theme tune and Captain Hastings bumbling about in his panama hat. I loved it when he wrinkled up his nose to the changing fashions and tastes. We're meant to be amused at Poirot's pomposity not bored by it. ITV seem to have lost this essence with its launch of the new-look Poirot. The humour and charm is lost amid the slick production values and forgettable theme tune. Poirot is the same chap but the world seems to have changed around him towards a high-gloss world of all-star cameos, glam lipstick and soft-focus. I fear that Poirot has lost his 'do-do-do-do -doooo' for good...

2006-07-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Is ITV’s strive to standardise mystery dramas through new branding and marketing techniques having a detrimental effect on the quality of Agatha Christie’s dramas?

Well then, I was quite pleased when I head Miss Marple was making a comeback to our screens. Memories of the grand dame Joan Hickson who made Miss Marple her own came flooding back.

The first series of the newly branded “Marple” (more about that later) was agreeable, cleverly using 1950s style pulp fiction font for the titles etc. The production of some of the better Miss Marples’, such as The Body in the Library or 4.50 from Paddington were a good start I thought. They really went to town on making the set designs animated with 1950s fashions and interiors. Full skirts, headscarves, busts, hips and a hostess trolley thrown in for good measure, made the show come alive, or did it?

Here is my problem. I think ITV with all their fancy set designers and wardrobe assistants have missed Christie’s point. If one reads a Miss Marple Mystery and studies the characters in them, they certainly are not your happy go lucky friendly neighbour type. The murderers Miss Marple uncovers are a symbol of the 1950s themselves; scarred by war, austere, down trodden and grey in the heart and the mind. Take Clothide Bradbury Scott, the witchy murderer in Nemesis, who has a penchant for making hot milky drinks you’re not going to forget in a hurry! She’s not a hip hooraying Diane Dors stylee in full skirt and polka dots; she is cold and calculating, and scared of the modern, changing world.

In all fairness Nemesis is yet to be remade by ITV, but I dread the high gloss version. They’ll have Clothide in heart shaped sunglasses before you could swig that milky drink down in one!

2006-07-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

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