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deaddogsdam
  • 22/05/2025
First broadcast 29th December 2010.

While visiting her friend Dermot Milewate in Little Ambrose, Miss Marple meets a young man named Eddie Seward on the bus.

Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple
Sharon Small as Mary Pritchard
Toby Stephens as George Pritchard
Claudie Blakley as Philippa Pritchard
Joanna Page as Hester Milewater
Claire Rushbrook as Caroline
Ian East as John the gardener
Kevin McNally as Inspector Somerset
Richard Betts as Clerk of the Court
Derek Hutchinson as Concierge
Donald Sinden as Sir Henry Clithering
Jason Durr as Eddie Seward
David Calder as Dermot Milewater
Paul Rhys as Lewis Pritchard
Patrick Baladi as Jonathan Frayn
Caroline Catz as Hazel Instow
Benjamin Harcourt as Peter Pritchard
Thomas Harcourt as Michael Pritchard
Molly Harcourt as Susan Pritchard
Rebekah Manning as Susan Carstairs
Hugh Ross as Lord Justice Carmichael
Greg Bennett as Villager
Pete Noakes as Party Guest

Category

📺
TV
Transcript
00:00:00♪♪
00:00:10♪♪
00:00:20♪♪
00:00:30♪♪
00:00:40♪♪
00:00:50♪♪
00:01:00♪♪
00:01:10Bridget?
00:01:13You have to stop ringing me here, please.
00:01:16No.
00:01:18She's upstairs in bed.
00:01:23Look, I said I'll do it, and I will, in my own time.
00:01:28♪♪
00:01:36♪♪
00:01:44Protection of the spirits of the wind,
00:01:47the fire and the water around me.
00:01:49Spirits, not to let evil cross the boundary
00:01:51into this room tonight.
00:01:55Spirits, please help me.
00:01:57Help me, please.
00:01:59♪♪
00:02:09♪♪
00:02:19♪♪
00:02:29Carol, tell Hester I'll take breakfast in the studio this morning.
00:02:32Yes, sir.
00:02:34♪♪
00:02:44Mrs. Pritchard?
00:02:47Mrs. Pritchard?
00:02:50Mrs. Pritchard?
00:02:54Mary?
00:02:58Mary?
00:03:00Mary!
00:03:03Shit.
00:03:18Oh, no.
00:03:20No.
00:03:22No.
00:03:37George?
00:03:39George?
00:03:45What is it?
00:03:48Mr. Pritchard.
00:03:50You should see this.
00:03:52♪♪
00:04:02Look at the terrain here.
00:04:04♪♪
00:04:26It's the wasp season already, Miss Marple.
00:04:29Oh, so I see.
00:04:31Hope you're killing them humanely, John.
00:04:33Nasty little predators.
00:04:35What's the point of a wasp, Miss Marple?
00:04:38I've never worked it out.
00:04:39I don't know.
00:04:40I'm sure they have their place.
00:04:42Garden's going to look wonderful again this year, Miss.
00:04:45I think so.
00:04:47Especially if we can get rid of these blighters.
00:04:50♪♪
00:05:09Are you all right, Miss Marple?
00:05:12Yes.
00:05:15♪♪
00:05:27Hello?
00:05:28Hello, yes.
00:05:29I wonder, is it possible to speak to Detective William Somerset?
00:05:33Yes, I believe he has a hearing in front of the Old Bailey today.
00:05:36Your name, please?
00:05:37Yes, my name is Jane Marple.
00:05:39One moment, please.
00:05:45Detective Somerset, there's a telephone call for you, sir.
00:05:48It's a Miss Jane Marple.
00:05:50Oh, for goodness sake.
00:05:51No, I don't want to talk to her.
00:05:53Tell her to go away.
00:05:55I've got a murderer to hang.
00:05:56Only put it more politely than that.
00:06:00He won't come to the phone.
00:06:01Perhaps you could call back later, madam.
00:06:03Goodbye.
00:06:05Oh, Jane.
00:06:06Oh, Jane.
00:06:15Scotland Yard.
00:06:16Hello, yes.
00:06:17I wonder, could you tell me where I can find Sir Henry Clithering?
00:06:29I'm terribly sorry, but as I've explained to you,
00:06:32this is a gentleman's club.
00:06:34Yes, yes, I know, but I have travelled some distance already today
00:06:37and I need to see Sir Henry Clithering on a matter of some urgency.
00:06:41Jane!
00:06:42Oh!
00:06:43Oh, what is it?
00:06:44Well, it's this, Sir Henry, excuse me.
00:06:47They're going to hang the wrong person for murder.
00:06:50Thank you so much.
00:06:51I think you'd better come through.
00:06:53But, Sir Henry, ladies are not allowed beyond the desk, sir.
00:06:56I'm a trustee. Make an exception.
00:06:58Excuse me. Thank you.
00:07:05You need to stop the hearing, Henry,
00:07:07or there will be terrible consequences.
00:07:09Are you familiar with the case?
00:07:11Well, yes, but I retired from Scotland Yard some time ago,
00:07:14and I carry no authority there.
00:07:16But you can get to the people in authority,
00:07:18whereas I can't and I need to.
00:07:20Calm down, Jane.
00:07:22Have you ever known me to be wrong, Sir Henry?
00:07:24No.
00:07:25In all the years you've known me?
00:07:27No.
00:07:28Well, I was wrong here.
00:07:30I was there when it happened, and I've got it wrong.
00:07:33Do you remember when old Mrs Chaloner died in St Mary Mead?
00:07:38Mrs Chaloner was murdered?
00:07:40No, no, no, no, no.
00:07:42But when she died, she had a knitting basket
00:07:45that was full of abandoned projects,
00:07:47and they were so entangled that one simply couldn't unravel them.
00:07:52Well, that's how I think of this case,
00:07:55this blue geranium murder.
00:07:58It became so knotted
00:08:01that it was difficult to tell one thing from the other.
00:08:04Tell me what happened, Jane, and then tell me why it's wrong.
00:08:08I'd been invited to the West Country
00:08:11to visit a friend, Dermot Milewater.
00:08:14He lives in a village called Little Ambrose,
00:08:17and to get there you have to catch a bus
00:08:20from a train station in Fothersby.
00:08:26There was one other person on the bus.
00:08:34And he was in a mood to talk.
00:08:38I love nature, don't you?
00:08:40I love the bareness of the trees and the clouds.
00:08:44Yes, yes, I do.
00:08:46My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.
00:08:50Wordsworth.
00:08:52Yes, yes.
00:08:54And I don't mind saying that I've been through a tunnel,
00:08:58Mrs...
00:09:00Marple, Miss Marple.
00:09:02Eddie Sewards, or just Ed, or Eddie.
00:09:05Eddie, Eddie.
00:09:07As I came through this tunnel, I saw a crocus.
00:09:11Saw it out the window, an early white crocus.
00:09:14And it was beautiful, it was terrifically beautiful.
00:09:17And I thought, I've never really seen nature as being beautiful before,
00:09:21and I should have done, I should have done.
00:09:24And then my heart leaped up like in the Wordsworth.
00:09:27It jumped.
00:09:30Do you think God is in nature, Miss Mabel?
00:09:35I think he is.
00:09:40I think he shows us how terrifically beautiful
00:09:44the world could really be.
00:09:49Are you going to let us go?
00:09:51No, I'm not going to let you go.
00:09:54It could really be.
00:09:58Are you going to Little Ambrose, Mr Seward?
00:10:02I'm going to force the moment to its crisis.
00:10:05What moment to what crisis?
00:10:07Surrounded by such beauty, I...
00:10:10I feel I will.
00:10:12I feel I can do it, yes.
00:10:15Yes.
00:10:24Yes.
00:10:44Madam.
00:10:48Jane! Jane!
00:10:50Oh, I'm sorry I'm late.
00:10:53But I come bearing gifts.
00:10:55Beautiful, thank you.
00:10:59Well, it's been too long, Jane.
00:11:02Yes, yes, it has.
00:11:04Excuse me.
00:11:06Mr Seward, do you know where you're going?
00:11:09Ah, yes, thank you.
00:11:12It's a beautiful village.
00:11:23It's a beautiful day.
00:11:25I have a wonderful feeling.
00:11:29Everything's going my way.
00:11:36Oh, hello, darling, you're up.
00:11:38Will you be writing?
00:11:40Yes, of course.
00:11:42Now, you know full well they're not for you.
00:11:44But she can't eat them all, can she?
00:11:48You know, there once was a man called Daniel Lambert,
00:11:51the fattest in England.
00:11:52Don't be mean about my sister.
00:11:54I'm not.
00:11:55And when he died, the undertaker said to smash through the window
00:11:58at the front of the house to get his corpse out
00:12:00because he was so fat he didn't fit through his own front door.
00:12:05Am I talking to myself again?
00:12:08I am, you know.
00:12:12I am talking to myself.
00:12:18Let me see.
00:12:21Hmm.
00:12:23Hello!
00:12:24You must be Miss Marble.
00:12:26Yes.
00:12:27Oh, Jane, this is Hester.
00:12:29This is my niece, Sir Robert's daughter.
00:12:31No.
00:12:32I remember you when your father had the parish at St Marymead.
00:12:35You were this tall.
00:12:36I remember St Marymead very fondly.
00:12:38Is it still as pretty?
00:12:40It is.
00:12:41But this is, I think, the prettiest village I know,
00:12:44and with a much more impressive church.
00:12:47Yes, well,
00:12:49as it may be, it might not be here for much longer.
00:12:55We've had some trouble with subsidence on the South Wall,
00:12:58and Goldermuth's raised funds to dig out the foundations.
00:13:01It was a botched job, Jane.
00:13:03They completely ruined it.
00:13:05Can't the diocese help?
00:13:07No.
00:13:08But we have a plan.
00:13:09There's a generous millionaire in the village now,
00:13:12Mr Trans Europa Airlines,
00:13:14who bought summerly at auction, when Major Frame died,
00:13:16block, stock and barrel.
00:13:17All the contents.
00:13:19Hester's cook at summerly now?
00:13:21Yes.
00:13:22And our plan is that today,
00:13:24when he's made captain of the golf club,
00:13:26we're praying he'll be in a benevolent mood.
00:13:33Where is she from?
00:13:34George, she said you could honk the horn all you like,
00:13:36but it's giving her a migraine.
00:13:37Well, well, he honked it twice.
00:13:39And anyway, she's decided she's not going to come.
00:13:41Why not?
00:13:42Here, let me help you.
00:13:43No, no, thanks, George.
00:13:46She's had her horoscope read this morning over the telephone.
00:13:49Oh, no.
00:13:50She wants you to ring Dr Frame.
00:13:54Things are going to fall apart today.
00:13:57That's what he said.
00:13:59It's a black day.
00:14:01The moon is in Mars or something.
00:14:03He said there were omens.
00:14:05Omens, George?
00:14:07Pass me the chocolates.
00:14:09Where are they?
00:14:11He said I should stay inside
00:14:13or bad things will happen to me.
00:14:17Not these, the truffles, you useless woman.
00:14:20And we should all stay here.
00:14:23No golf.
00:14:24Stay here in this sanctuary with me.
00:14:29Except you.
00:14:30You can go wherever you like, Nurse Copley.
00:14:33You're annoying today.
00:14:34I hope bad things happen to you.
00:14:37Darling, you said you were looking forward to going to the golf club.
00:14:40You were going to wear your new dress, which everyone was going to admire.
00:14:43Darling, they're expecting you.
00:14:45Yes, they're expecting me to lie dying on the floor
00:14:50so they can stand around laughing at me whilst I lie dying.
00:15:06Thanks for coming, Frame.
00:15:07No problem.
00:15:08I have to be at the golf club by three o'clock.
00:15:10I'll get her there as soon as I can.
00:15:11Is she in her room?
00:15:12Yeah, following the noise.
00:15:14George!
00:15:20Is that Dr. Frames?
00:15:25He said a black day, Johnny.
00:15:28And you know how sensitive I am.
00:15:31Is that your magic medicine?
00:15:33Yes.
00:15:38That works for me.
00:15:40It settles me.
00:15:41I know.
00:15:42George brought some hyacinths in from the greenhouse
00:15:44thinking that would settle me.
00:15:46But nothing settles me like you, Johnny.
00:15:49Will you stay close to me at the golf club?
00:15:51Yes, of course.
00:15:52Will you watch over me all the time?
00:15:57So that afternoon, Sir Henry,
00:15:59most of little Ambrose turns up at the golf club.
00:16:02And I learn from Dermot
00:16:04that George Pritchard's brother, Lewis,
00:16:07is a penniless writer
00:16:09and married to Mary Pritchard's sister, Philippa.
00:16:15Two brothers who married two sisters?
00:16:17Yes, and that afternoon there was something very strange
00:16:20going on between the brothers.
00:16:25George!
00:16:32What happened to your note?
00:16:34You need to give me 20 quid.
00:16:36I upheld your 20 quid. I haven't got it.
00:16:38Why, he did that to you?
00:16:39Yeah, I was walking here.
00:16:41He draws up in that car.
00:16:42He says things will get a lot worse if I don't pay up.
00:16:45Though you need any money, you're going to have to go through Mary.
00:16:48No!
00:16:49Because she needs to know that the money's going to get to her sister
00:16:51and not some bloody bookmaker!
00:16:53Oh, George. George.
00:16:57Are you really that much under her thumb?
00:17:02I know you like carrying a big wad around
00:17:04more than most people earn in a month.
00:17:08I know you can pay this.
00:17:11Huh.
00:17:23You don't need to tell her.
00:17:24Next time, don't bother asking me.
00:17:26You go to Mary.
00:17:41Oh, sorry. Sorry I'm late.
00:17:44Did you bring the fruit pies?
00:17:46No. No, I'm afraid I didn't have time.
00:17:49Oh, not to worry. Not to worry.
00:17:51Just hope we've got enough to go around.
00:17:53Hazel's an artist, Miss Marple.
00:17:55We have to allow her a little dreaminess.
00:17:58Hello.
00:17:59Jane Marple. Nice to meet you.
00:18:01Are all these people admiring my dress, Johnny?
00:18:04Yes, they are.
00:18:05And what was George speaking to me about?
00:18:07Yes, they are.
00:18:08And what was George speaking to my sister's useless husband about?
00:18:11Was it money?
00:18:12He handed over about £20.
00:18:14It'll be for the bookmakers again.
00:18:16Right. And where is George now?
00:18:18Where is he?
00:18:19He's with Reverend Marlwater.
00:18:23Is he?
00:18:24Well, I bet I can tell you what that's about.
00:18:27The cost, well, it escalates every day.
00:18:29Well, the biases thing,
00:18:30I could make funds available by the end of the year,
00:18:33but at that time, the whole thing could have collapsed completely.
00:18:36I hope it does, the miserable place.
00:18:38Darling.
00:18:39How much are they after this time, George?
00:18:42I mean, you people are shameless.
00:18:45We have been back here two years
00:18:47and already we've forked out to redevelop the golf course,
00:18:50the cricket pavilion, dig out the culverts.
00:18:53It's like being stuck in a nightmare village of Oliver Twist,
00:18:57going more, more, more.
00:19:00Well, come on, tell us how much you've cost
00:19:03by messing up those renovations.
00:19:05Well, it's in the region of...
00:19:07Because you're not going to get any.
00:19:09And I'll tell you why.
00:19:11Because I hate that miserable little church.
00:19:14I hate the way it denies the true old patterns of the world,
00:19:18the horoscopes and the auras and all of the true things.
00:19:22I hate the way it bores people to death
00:19:25every Sunday through this little failure of a preacher.
00:19:30Oh, ask everyone here, they all think you're boring.
00:19:35They all think you're a waste of space.
00:19:39So, no money.
00:19:45Well, I am done now, so...
00:19:47so you can all stop gawping.
00:19:54Shall we go outside to perform the ceremony for the new captain?
00:20:05Just ignore her, Reverend. She's an awful woman.
00:20:08If she could say one spiteful thing, she can say a handful.
00:20:11She makes her husband's life a misery too, by all accounts.
00:20:14Perhaps any consolation.
00:20:16But God forgive me, but if George Pritchard would have brained his wife with a hatchet,
00:20:20there's not a soul in this village that wouldn't acquit him.
00:20:23Couldn't you have stopped her?
00:20:25No-one can stop her, darling.
00:20:27But you can.
00:20:28Well, maybe she's right.
00:20:30Maybe people are beginning to sponge off them.
00:20:32Wish me luck with the speech.
00:20:40Ladies and gentlemen,
00:20:42since George Pritchard came to Little Ambrose and bought Summerleigh from my late father,
00:20:47we've a lot to thank him for.
00:20:49The cricket pavilion, work on the Back Nine,
00:20:52and many other small projects that have improved our community
00:20:55are down to George's generosity.
00:20:57So it's a pleasure to invite him to accept the captaincy of our club
00:21:01taking over from the many years' service of my father
00:21:04and to perform the ceremonial drive of the first team.
00:21:07Let's see if he can beat our captain's record,
00:21:09held by our lady's captain, Mrs Hartock,
00:21:11at 183 yards,
00:21:13a phenomenal distance,
00:21:15considering she's a woman.
00:21:17I'd do well to beat that.
00:21:19Lewis, are your kids out spotting?
00:21:21Yeah, they're down there.
00:21:23They're being very optimistic.
00:21:26LAUGHTER
00:21:30Are you worried, Mrs Hartock?
00:21:32No, you're not worried, are you, love?
00:21:34She's seen him play.
00:21:42Oh!
00:21:46And it's the trees by the river.
00:21:49APPLAUSE
00:21:56Did we get a second girl?
00:21:58No.
00:21:59You know, my kids will never find that, George.
00:22:01They've been here for years, come out looking like Rip Van Bloody Winkle.
00:22:04LAUGHTER
00:22:07LAUGHTER
00:22:33Oh, God.
00:22:37Is he dead?
00:22:39Come here. Come here, Michael.
00:22:49Who is it, George?
00:22:53Oh. Oh, my goodness.
00:23:01BELL RINGS
00:23:06BELL RINGS
00:23:16Brute force.
00:23:18Scratches on the neck to indicate a struggle.
00:23:20I'd say the murderer was a man, wouldn't you, Doctor?
00:23:23I'd say a man.
00:23:30Is he local?
00:23:32No.
00:23:33He's been here for a week now, a bit longer.
00:23:36Killed upstream, dumped in the river.
00:23:38No jacket, nothing in his pockets,
00:23:40nothing to immediately identify him, anyway.
00:23:42Oh, we have a name, Detective Somerset. We know who he is.
00:23:46And did Eddie Seward say where he'd come from?
00:23:49I presume London. His coat was Savile Row.
00:23:52And to be on the 10.25 bus from Fothersby
00:23:55meant he'd most likely arrived on the 8.05 from Paddington.
00:23:58Right.
00:24:00It was an impulsive visit, Detective Somerset.
00:24:02I believe he'd only decided to make the journey that morning.
00:24:05He told you that, did he?
00:24:07No, no, no, he had no travel bag.
00:24:10And did he say why he was headed to Little Ambrose?
00:24:13Yes. He said he was here to force the moment to its crisis.
00:24:18Well, that could mean anything.
00:24:20No, no, it's from a poem about a man called Prufrock
00:24:23who is trying to summon up the courage to ask a woman to marry him.
00:24:26Is it?
00:24:27No, Inspector, I couldn't help noticing when I saw the body
00:24:31that the bottom half of the tie that killed him was missing.
00:24:34Well, you had a good look, did you?
00:24:36Well, you can learn so much if you're lucky enough to see the body.
00:24:41Can I just ask if the other part of his tie was found on or near him?
00:24:47Well, that's a police concern, Miss Marple.
00:24:50Yes, Inspector.
00:24:51It seems you've just had a phone call from a certain lady
00:24:54who would like to see you rather urgently.
00:24:58And the scratches on his neck, I wonder,
00:25:01were they made by the dead man or by a possible assailant?
00:25:05Again, Miss Marple, that's a matter that should only concern the police.
00:25:08And what's the name of this certain lady?
00:25:10Mary Pritchard. I suggest you wear a helmet.
00:25:16This was death foretold.
00:25:19No-one took me seriously and it's about time you all started.
00:25:23I don't want those pills. I want your magic, Dr Frain.
00:25:26You know I can't take pills without mayonnaise.
00:25:28Mrs Pritchard, I was told you had something urgent to tell me.
00:25:31That's what she said.
00:25:33I'm being burgled.
00:25:34You are not being burgled!
00:25:36Jewellery goes missing from this room.
00:25:39Yes, it does. My emerald ring, for one.
00:25:41That diamond brooch.
00:25:43Snuff boxes from the whole table, spirited away.
00:25:46Now you're in the village, Inspector.
00:25:48You can take me seriously and put all your efforts into this crime as well.
00:25:51Mrs Pritchard, I have a capital crime here.
00:25:54Now I was told you had something urgent to say about the murder of Eddie Seward.
00:25:57That was Eddie Seward?
00:25:59Yes, did you know him?
00:26:00Oh, I knew him.
00:26:02You did too, didn't you, George?
00:26:06Just before I left the yard, we investigated an Edward Seward
00:26:10because his wife went missing.
00:26:12That's right.
00:26:13And that's what Detective Somerset found out after a quick phone call.
00:26:17He was a member here, you know.
00:26:19Rich as a crease as he was.
00:26:21Inherited a mining fortune.
00:26:23Never did a day's work in his life.
00:26:25Yes, I believe we would have been in the same society of answers as Eddie Seward, but...
00:26:29We weren't friends. I wouldn't have recognised him.
00:26:31Business associates?
00:26:32No.
00:26:33Would you like a drink, Inspector?
00:26:36Or are you all right with tea?
00:26:38No, no, thanks. Tea's fine.
00:26:40Of course.
00:26:41So, from what I can gather, he would finance ventures, some of them nefarious.
00:26:46Yes, well, I steer clear of financiers like that.
00:26:49Tea, Mr Pritchard?
00:26:50Yes, thank you, Esther.
00:26:53No, thanks.
00:26:55I set up the airline with contacts I had in the Air Force.
00:27:00Good.
00:27:03Oh, um...
00:27:04Where were you between 11.30 and the events at the golf course this afternoon?
00:27:09I was here.
00:27:21Hello. I've been looking for you.
00:27:24How are you?
00:27:27I have been here for 40 years, Jane.
00:27:30And the whole thing's going to fall down around me.
00:27:33You'll raise the money.
00:27:37Is this where you write?
00:27:39Yes, I try to get inspiration from these things.
00:27:43I'm a writer.
00:27:45I'm a writer.
00:27:46Yes, I try to get inspiration from these things.
00:27:58Oh, Seven Deadly Sins.
00:28:01Yes, and I think we all know who Gluttony is.
00:28:05Oh, I try to see the good in people, Jane,
00:28:07but that woman has not got an ounce of it in her, never has had.
00:28:10Someone ought to teach her a lesson.
00:28:13Too much.
00:28:14No, I mean it.
00:28:16Oh.
00:28:22She grew up in this village. Did you know that?
00:28:25No.
00:28:27Oh, she's very pretty.
00:28:28And George Pritchard was her sister's fiancé.
00:28:34They met when they were in the RAF during the war.
00:28:37And Philippa was so in love with him.
00:28:40I'd never seen anybody so in love.
00:28:43And Mary stole him.
00:28:47This is George.
00:28:49Hello.
00:28:50She broke her sister's heart.
00:28:56Philippa married the other brother out of desperation, I suppose. I don't know.
00:29:01Mary's been such a terrible wife to George.
00:29:04She makes him live here so that she can play the lady of the manor
00:29:07when he needs to be in London.
00:29:10She bullies him.
00:29:13Bullies everyone.
00:29:14I think Eddie Seale deserved to die.
00:29:16That's a terrible thing to say.
00:29:18We knew him in London, Philippa.
00:29:20He was a piece of work.
00:29:22Drunk and violent.
00:29:25How do you know that?
00:29:26I met his wife.
00:29:27The one who disappeared.
00:29:29When?
00:29:31At one of those hideous balls in Park Lane
00:29:34where everyone dresses up as if Edward VII was still on the throne.
00:29:41Are you all right?
00:29:42Are you all right?
00:29:44Penelope Seward.
00:29:46She was quiet. Didn't want to talk.
00:29:48But she was angry.
00:29:50She said she couldn't go back to the ball
00:29:52because she had a huge bruise on the side of her face where he'd hit her.
00:29:56Oh, and that wasn't the worst.
00:29:58She had scars on her arms
00:30:00where she said he'd stubbed out his cigars when he was drunk.
00:30:04She said if she stayed one more day with him...
00:30:07I'll kill him.
00:30:12Now, maybe she has.
00:30:14Oh, Mary.
00:30:17Obviously, the discovery of Eddie's body
00:30:19had spread unease through the village that night.
00:30:28Hi, Dad.
00:30:29Hello.
00:30:30Hello, Daddy.
00:30:31It's a nice sound.
00:30:32That's what I like to hear.
00:30:34How's the book going?
00:30:36Going fine.
00:30:37Dad, who do you think you are, but man?
00:30:40Look, children, don't mess...
00:30:42Can you just take these pots off the table?
00:30:45No.
00:30:46No, if you go and put your pyjamas on, I'll be up in a minute.
00:30:49I'll take that. I'll take that.
00:31:01This body down the club will make a good story.
00:31:04Yeah. Pot, whatever.
00:31:06Well, sometimes pots need to boil, don't they?
00:31:10Otherwise no-one eats.
00:31:13What does that mean?
00:31:15I've put this week's groceries on the tab again.
00:31:18That's four weeks we owe now.
00:31:23Can you talk to your brother, Lewis?
00:31:25I'm sure he could help us out if you ask.
00:31:29Everything's going to be fine.
00:31:41£20, but I don't want to pay it off yet.
00:31:45I want you to put this on Flavius the Great,
00:31:48toast at 2.15 tomorrow.
00:31:50Do you know your history?
00:31:52Flavius, named, I presume, after Flavius Belisarius,
00:31:55was the only Roman general who never lost a battle.
00:31:59He never lost.
00:32:10Hello. I thought you'd gone, darling.
00:32:12Well, Mary asked me if I'd hang around in case she had a relapse.
00:32:16Relapse of what?
00:32:18Actually, I was waiting for you.
00:32:20Shall we go for a drink?
00:32:22Yes, a drink would be nice after today. Good.
00:32:2634, blonde.
00:32:28Can I have a photograph sent, because I think she might be here.
00:32:31I'll look it up.
00:32:32Either that or Eddie Seward came to see George Pritchard,
00:32:35which Pritchard denies.
00:32:36Eddie Seward, George Pritchard.
00:32:38This could be a high-profile case, Bill.
00:32:40Yeah, I'm aware of that.
00:32:42If I can wrap this up quickly, it could be my ticket back to London.
00:32:45Then all that stuff will be forgotten.
00:32:51Hang on one moment.
00:32:53Yes, dear?
00:32:54Something I forgot to say, Inspector.
00:32:57Eddie Seward was a drunk, that much was obvious,
00:33:00but from his behaviour on the bus this morning,
00:33:03I don't think he'd been drinking today.
00:33:05Interesting, but could you walk away now,
00:33:07because I'm on confidential police business here.
00:33:09Can I just ask, if I may,
00:33:11if you think the scratches on his neck were self-inflicted
00:33:14or the result of a fight?
00:33:16My friend, Sir Henry Clithering, you see,
00:33:18says you can always tell if it's self-inflicted
00:33:21by looking under the fingernails.
00:33:23You know Sir Henry Clithering? Scotland Yard?
00:33:26Yeah.
00:33:28Eddie Seward was a drunk, wasn't he?
00:33:31He disappeared from a drying-out clinic
00:33:33at about five o'clock yesterday afternoon.
00:33:35As I thought.
00:33:36And I think his wife must be down here somewhere, don't you?
00:33:40Yes.
00:33:41Yes.
00:33:42Well, if you need any help, Inspector, do let me know.
00:33:50Who on earth was that?
00:33:51You don't want to know.
00:33:52But I'll bet George Pritchard knows more about Eddie Seward
00:33:55than he's letting on.
00:34:02MUSIC PLAYS
00:34:14Sir Henry?
00:34:15Oh.
00:34:18So, both you and Somerset were right.
00:34:21Penelope Seward was Little Ambrose.
00:34:24Yes, yes, yes, but wait, I have to tell this right.
00:34:27And this is where it becomes tangled.
00:34:30Like Mrs Chaloner's wool, remember?
00:34:32Mrs Chaloner's wool?
00:34:34Because the next morning, while the whole house was out,
00:34:37Mary Pritchard had a visitor.
00:34:42Now, whenever she heard of a new mystic or fortune-teller,
00:34:45she couldn't resist arranging for a reading.
00:34:48The one she had scheduled to call that morning
00:34:51was a fortune-teller who called herself Zarida.
00:34:55Oh!
00:34:56Zarida.
00:34:58Come in. Come in!
00:35:00Yesterday, I had the most horrific horoscope,
00:35:03and it all came true.
00:35:05I am so in tune with the spiritual...
00:35:08I cannot come into this room.
00:35:11I feel evil and danger.
00:35:15What are they doing here?
00:35:18Blue hyacinths are a warning, Mary Pritchard.
00:35:23If you see blue hollyhocks,
00:35:26they will mean danger.
00:35:28Danger.
00:35:29And blue geraniums will mean your death.
00:35:37I'm going to die.
00:35:38You're not dying.
00:35:40Warning, then danger, then death!
00:35:42You certainly got your money's worth this morning, didn't you?
00:35:45I was foretold Eddie Seward's death.
00:35:47Now I've been foretold my own.
00:35:49Look, you don't get blue hollyhocks.
00:35:53They're pink and they're yellow.
00:35:55So I think it's fair to say that you're going to be with us forever, Mary.
00:35:58You know blue has always been repellent to me, George.
00:36:01There's a pity food isn't, Blue?
00:36:03Who brought the hyacinths in, Mr Pritchard?
00:36:08Now, are you going to host the drinks tonight?
00:36:11You know, I've got the golf lot coming round.
00:36:13I think I might be dead by this evening.
00:36:16Enough!
00:36:18Enough of this spiritual poppycock!
00:36:20George.
00:36:22And the crackpots that you listen to!
00:36:25I hate this, Mary, I hate it!
00:36:28Everything I've ever done you've ruined.
00:36:30You ruin every day of my life.
00:36:32I'm scared, George.
00:36:34Well, I'm not scared of you any more.
00:36:37Now, you stop this nonsense.
00:36:39You get out of bed, you go downstairs, you host this evening.
00:36:42You do it well, because I'm warning you, I've had enough!
00:36:52Yes.
00:36:58Do you see there, Jane, that great big crack?
00:37:01Yes, yes.
00:37:03Have there been any new arrivals in the village
00:37:06over the last couple of years?
00:37:08Women in their thirties?
00:37:10Well, there's been a couple of them, haven't there, Hiss?
00:37:13They've had a change of nurse up at Summerwick.
00:37:16Nurse Copling came with excellent references, didn't she, Hiss?
00:37:21Well, she did, yes.
00:37:22Well, I'm new, of course, Miss Marple.
00:37:24Been here a year now.
00:37:25Oh, well, of course, that makes three of them.
00:37:27And if only Dr Frane would eventually get round to asking you to marry him,
00:37:30well, then you'd be with us a little longer, wouldn't you?
00:37:33If he ever does.
00:37:35Why would Eddie Seward's body wash up at the golf course?
00:37:39Is there anything uprimour from there?
00:37:42Well, only an old watermill, but it's practically abandoned.
00:37:45Why, what are you thinking, Jane?
00:37:47I think that Eddie came to Little Ambrose to find his wife
00:37:50and I imagine he was going to tell her that he'd cleaned himself up
00:37:53and was going to force the moment to its crisis
00:37:56and ask her to take him back.
00:37:58Oh, but instead she killed him and dumped his body in the river.
00:38:02Well, perhaps.
00:38:04Miss Marple, I heard George Pritchard lie to the police yesterday.
00:38:08Oh, where were you between 11.30
00:38:11and the events at the golf course this afternoon?
00:38:13I was here.
00:38:19But he wasn't. He was absent from Summerleigh the whole time.
00:38:29Who was the third woman who arrived?
00:38:32Hazel Insler.
00:38:34She's lovely. And what do you know about her?
00:38:38I came to Little Ambrose, I'd say, 18 months ago.
00:38:42The peace and quiet. And before that?
00:38:45I love Alexandria. I love the antiquities.
00:38:48It had always been a dream of mine to paint in Egypt.
00:38:50Oh, how long have you lived there?
00:38:52A number of years. My sister's married to the British consul.
00:38:55I'm afraid I never knew this Mr Seward, Inspector,
00:38:58so I can't really help you.
00:39:00Of course. And before Egypt?
00:39:03London.
00:39:07May I ask...
00:39:09is it possible to make a living doing this?
00:39:12A small one, yes.
00:39:14I have a brother in Chelsea which takes the occasional work.
00:39:17But it's a vacation rather than a profession for me, Detective.
00:39:21Oh!
00:39:23Oh!
00:39:25Ah!
00:39:27Now...
00:39:29now what should he fetch?
00:39:31Oh, no, he's not going anywhere.
00:39:33That was just a sketch for a commission from the golf club.
00:39:35When I paint it up, they're going to hang George in the clubhouse.
00:39:40No manner of speaking. Sorry.
00:39:44Is she coming down, Caroline?
00:39:46No, Mrs Pritchard.
00:39:48Hazel, will you perform hostess duties for George tonight?
00:39:52No, you. Please.
00:39:55What puzzles me is this.
00:39:57Fortune tellers are usually out for what they can get.
00:40:00From what I can see, they just say what Mrs Pritchard wants to hear.
00:40:04This Zerida, she seems to be frightening her.
00:40:08No advantage to herself.
00:40:10I don't see the point.
00:40:12How did Mary hear of Zerida?
00:40:14Susan Carstairs, the nurse before me, put her on to her.
00:40:17Why does that not surprise me?
00:40:19Nurse Carstairs was really into this sort of thing.
00:40:23She sent this letter she left about six months ago.
00:40:27It was all very sudden.
00:40:29She sent this recommendation out of the blue last week.
00:40:33Did Mrs Pritchard make the appointment herself?
00:40:35No, I rang Zerida at her request.
00:40:37I'm going to ring Miss Zerida now, ask her what she's playing at.
00:40:41Why did Nurse Carstairs leave so suddenly?
00:40:45We have a steady flow of staff here, I'm afraid.
00:40:49My sister isn't the easiest person to work for.
00:40:56Is she not in?
00:40:57The number's discontinued.
00:41:04I'm going to catch you.
00:41:07I'm going to catch you.
00:41:09No running indoors, Peter, please.
00:41:12Thank you, boys.
00:41:14Ah, Jonathan. Welcome. Come through.
00:41:17I'm afraid my wife's nerves have got the better of her this evening.
00:41:20She won't be joining us.
00:41:22Hazel.
00:41:24Excuse me.
00:41:26Sorry to intrude, Pritchard,
00:41:28but I wonder if I could have a quick word with your employees,
00:41:31Nurse Copling and Miss Milewater.
00:41:33Whatever for?
00:41:36Just routine.
00:41:40You can use my study.
00:41:46Hey, these look amazing, you little rascal.
00:41:49Can I have three, please?
00:42:04Mrs Pritchard, I, er...
00:42:07took a bottle of Dr Frayne's magic medicine
00:42:10from your sister's bedroom.
00:42:12Whatever for, Caroline?
00:42:14You should taste it.
00:42:24So, you've been living with your uncle for over a year now?
00:42:28That's right.
00:42:30And where did you live before?
00:42:32What was the address?
00:42:34Strathlevin Mansion in Spacewater.
00:42:37Did you live alone?
00:42:40Were you married?
00:42:42I'm not married, no.
00:42:44You don't think I'm that dead man's wife, do you, Inspector?
00:42:47It's just procedure, miss.
00:42:49Have you played the new course, sir?
00:42:51I think Mrs Pritchard might need to see you, Doctor.
00:42:55Excuse me.
00:43:01I'm afraid I'd rather you go and stay at the campus.
00:43:08You're a novelist, aren't you, Mr Pritchard?
00:43:11That's right, yeah.
00:43:13I'm a novelist.
00:43:15You're a novelist, aren't you, Mr Pritchard?
00:43:18That's right, yeah.
00:43:20How is the book going, Pritchard?
00:43:22You've been working on that for as long as you've been here, haven't you?
00:43:26It's a very long book.
00:43:29What's it about?
00:43:31Well, it's a historical novel.
00:43:33It's based on The Princess and the Tower.
00:43:35In many ways, it's the best story Shakespeare never wrote.
00:43:39Didn't he?
00:43:40Yes, what we don't tell Lewis is Shakespeare did actually write it.
00:43:44He didn't.
00:43:48He referred to it. He didn't dedicate a whole work to it.
00:43:53And what would you know about Shakespeare anyway, George?
00:43:56Nothing. You're right, of course.
00:43:58Is everyone all right for drinks?
00:44:02Lewis is nearing the end of it now, actually, Reverend.
00:44:08Excuse me.
00:44:10Yes?
00:44:11Were you talking to the policeman?
00:44:14We found it by the river.
00:44:18We were making a den.
00:44:20Well, very good.
00:44:23Oh, Inspector.
00:44:25Yes?
00:44:26I think the children have found where Eddie Seward died.
00:44:41Mrs Pritchard's asked if it's possible...
00:44:43Dr Frey?
00:44:44If it's possible to have a tray of food sent up.
00:44:46What is the meaning of this, Jonathan?
00:44:49You have the medicine. We're looking for that.
00:44:51Why is it filled with water?
00:44:54Because your sister's not ill, Mrs Pritchard.
00:44:58She is ill.
00:44:59Oh, she is, Doctor.
00:45:01Oh, she's nauseous every day.
00:45:03She has had a succession of viruses and she catches everything going.
00:45:07The only sickness she has is in her head, Nurse.
00:45:10My sister is definitely ill.
00:45:14And therefore the treatment that makes her feel better
00:45:17is also in her head.
00:45:19There's been something seriously wrong with Mary for years, Dr Frey,
00:45:22and specialists have not been able to get to the bottom of it.
00:45:25And the only thing wrong with her is that she overeats.
00:45:28And that's as much the fault of people like you
00:45:31who pander to her every taste with ridiculous amounts of food, Philippa.
00:45:34She's lost her confidence, she's become agoraphobic,
00:45:37and she imagines all kinds of ailments in order to keep your attention.
00:45:41She's lost her confidence, she's become agoraphobic,
00:45:44and she imagines all kinds of ailments in order to keep your attention.
00:46:11Oh, my God!
00:46:13Oh, my God!
00:46:38Oh, George! Hollyhock! It's blue, look!
00:46:43It's impossible! The hollyhock on the wallpaper turned blue!
00:46:47Well, that's what Mary said.
00:46:49By the time they'd calmed her down and got some sense out of her,
00:46:52the hollyhock was pink.
00:46:56Which particular hollyhock are we talking about?
00:46:59No, it was blue! I saw it turning blue!
00:47:03I am in danger!
00:47:05Just calm down.
00:47:07Shh! Come on.
00:47:13Come on.
00:47:24You mean she imagined it?
00:47:26Well, that's what people thought, but she didn't think so.
00:47:30And neither do I. Not now.
00:47:32I think someone was trying to scare that woman to death.
00:47:36What type of wallpaper was it?
00:47:38Well, that evening, Sir Henry, I tried to find out exactly where it was from.
00:47:42I designed it, Miss Marple.
00:47:44Yes, my sister was almost bed-bound last summer.
00:47:47Didn't want to miss the garden, so had it brought into her room, as it were.
00:47:51And George commissioned me to design a wallpaper from the flowers.
00:47:54He was very specific about the flowers that he wanted.
00:47:57Very adventurous.
00:47:59Primroses and buttercups and foxgloves and hollyhocks all blooming together.
00:48:03I call it blooming madness.
00:48:05Thank you, Hester. My pleasure, Philippa.
00:48:13This is Susan Carstairs putting the frighteners on Her Majesty upstairs.
00:48:17I don't know how, but I'm sure of it.
00:48:19Huh. The previous nurse?
00:48:21What makes you say that?
00:48:23Because... And I didn't want to say this in front of Philippa, because...
00:48:27Well, I think she still holds a candle for George Pritchard.
00:48:30Don't you, Carol? I do.
00:48:32But Nurse Carstairs definitely left Summerley under a cloud.
00:48:35What sort of cloud? A soar-sea cloud.
00:48:38I was hanging around here one night.
00:48:40I wasn't being nosy, Jane, but let's say there was a bit of design to my hanging around
00:48:44because I had suspicions.
00:48:54Again.
00:48:59Again.
00:49:07Again.
00:49:11Again.
00:49:15She left soon afterwards, overnight.
00:49:18I think she saw George as a main chance, saw herself as the second Mrs Pritchard.
00:49:22And when George realised that, he got rid of her.
00:49:25Did Mary know of the affair?
00:49:27I don't know.
00:49:29But I reckon Susan Carstairs herself was the reader
00:49:32and scaring the wits out of George's wife is her way of getting revenge.
00:49:41I love nature, don't you?
00:49:44I love the bareness of the trees.
00:49:49All right, thank you, children. If you could just go with the constable now.
00:49:52Go on, now. Let's get you home.
00:49:54So, this is where he was thrown in the river.
00:49:57I wonder if he was killed here as well.
00:49:59Or took his own life.
00:50:01No, this is murder, Miss Marple, clear as day.
00:50:04I mean, there's no note. Where's the note?
00:50:07And I've seen murder got up to look like suicide many times.
00:50:11When people take their own lives, Inspector,
00:50:13sometimes they try and do it in a significant place.
00:50:16What's significant about here to Eddie Stewart?
00:50:19It's beautiful.
00:50:21And he told me that coming through the tunnel of his alcoholism,
00:50:24he was taking great strength from nature.
00:50:27He was finding God in it.
00:50:29Yeah, yeah. If he was committing suicide,
00:50:32why didn't we find him hanging from that tree?
00:50:35Because the guy hadn't supported his weight for long,
00:50:38had torn and the body had fallen from where it was hanging.
00:50:42So he fell in the river and just floated downstream.
00:50:44That's a wonderful explanation.
00:50:46Can you think of another?
00:50:47Yes. His wife killed him and made it look like suicide.
00:50:50But what if the scratches on his neck were not the result of a fight,
00:50:54but his own hands trying to save himself?
00:50:57If he's committing suicide, why would he try to stop it?
00:50:59Because, as my friend Sir Henry Clithering says,
00:51:02sometimes people pull out of their suicides.
00:51:04Inspector, surely you know that.
00:51:07No, no, I don't buy it. This is still a major murder case.
00:51:13Inspector, why are you no longer working in London?
00:51:15Why are you down here?
00:51:20Well, as you know, Sir Henry, I imagine you'll find out about it.
00:51:26There was an incident.
00:51:29Involving drink?
00:51:31Involving drink, yes.
00:51:33It was all made and I was told to sort myself out.
00:51:40What was in Eddie's wallet?
00:51:43Money, a business card with his club address on it,
00:51:46tickets for various things.
00:51:48May I see?
00:51:53I'm going to go to London and try to trace his movements
00:51:55between the time that he checked out of the drying-out clinic
00:51:58and the time he came here.
00:52:00See if he met up with anyone.
00:52:02Good idea.
00:52:07Inspector, I don't think it's connected to this,
00:52:09but I believe that someone is trying to scare Mary Pritchard.
00:52:13Perhaps you should...
00:52:14I don't think it would take much to set that woman off,
00:52:16Miss Marple, do you?
00:52:17And I agree, I don't think it is connected.
00:52:19Magical flowers, I mean.
00:52:21Honestly.
00:52:32Hello.
00:52:46Hello.
00:52:58What's wrong?
00:53:00Susan Carstairs.
00:53:03You've slept with her since I've lived here.
00:53:05That's not true.
00:53:07You were seen, George, don't lie.
00:53:09Why?
00:53:10Do you not love me enough?
00:53:12Of course I love you.
00:53:14Then why are we not risking enough for each other, George?
00:53:17I did it because...
00:53:20..because she was there.
00:53:22She was there and you're not, not like that.
00:53:27I want to be with you.
00:53:29You won't let me.
00:53:30We talk and talk in circles about how much we want to be together, but...
00:53:35..you never show that you really want me.
00:53:37It's always meeting like this.
00:53:46I love you.
00:53:50I love you.
00:53:53I'm so sorry.
00:53:55I'd do anything for you, and you know that.
00:53:58Don't you?
00:54:20Hello?
00:54:21Oh, hello.
00:54:22Is that the Fetty Place auction house?
00:54:28So, do you think I should go to the police, Reverend Marwater?
00:54:32Do you think I should tell them about Dr Frayn
00:54:34and how he's failing in his hypocritical duties?
00:54:38Hypocratic!
00:54:42I think it's theft, Miss Marple, don't you?
00:54:45Charging them all this money for nothing but water?
00:54:49I'm so stupid, Philippa.
00:54:50It's hypocratic after Hippocrates, the Greek physician.
00:54:53Not hypocritic...
00:54:56..after everyone in this village.
00:55:01He won't be the first doctor to prescribe a placebo for a patient.
00:55:05And your sister feels better after the treatment, doesn't she, Philippa?
00:55:09It's just deceitful.
00:55:11When I was in the Air Force...
00:55:13Oh, here we go.
00:55:15Back when you were in the Air Force, when you met George.
00:55:22When you fell in love with him.
00:55:31During the war, there was this girl, Miss Marple.
00:55:34She used to do this placebo thing with the black market.
00:55:39She'd water down perfumes and whisky and things.
00:55:45Pass off poor-quality nylons for top brands.
00:55:50We used to call her the Wasp.
00:55:52She'd get stung if you went near her.
00:55:55She had this obsession with money.
00:55:58This voracious greed for it.
00:56:02I think Dr Frayn is the same,
00:56:04and I think he should be drummed out of the medical profession
00:56:08like the Wasp was drummed out of the services.
00:56:11Now, that looks good.
00:56:13Oh, it is, and it's not for you.
00:56:16It's to cheer Mary up.
00:56:24So what would the police do if I went and complained?
00:56:28Very little, I'm afraid.
00:56:31During the drinks yesterday, did you go upstairs and talk to Mary?
00:56:37You see everything, Jane, don't you?
00:56:40Well, I thought if I might speak to her alone,
00:56:43use what remains of the mild-water charm,
00:56:46I could bring her round to giving us some money.
00:56:50And?
00:56:52Well, I thought if I spoke to her alone,
00:56:55I could bring her round to giving us some money.
00:56:58And?
00:57:00Lewis got there before me.
00:57:08Well, if you don't give me the money,
00:57:10they're going to come back to the village,
00:57:12they'll hurt Philippa, they'll hurt our children,
00:57:14they're going to take everything we've got.
00:57:16Everything in that cottage is owned by George and me!
00:57:20You haven't owned a penny in your life.
00:57:23The only way you'll be worth anything is if George and I die.
00:57:27You know, Mary,
00:57:29you are an evil bitch!
00:57:33Please go now.
00:57:35George! I'm going, I'm going.
00:57:37George!
00:57:42Does he need money because of his gambling on the horses?
00:57:45I imagine so.
00:57:47Philippa speaks to me sometimes about it, how much it worries her.
00:57:51Look, do you mind if we just stop here for a moment, Jane?
00:57:57Just stop in this village of mine.
00:58:02Dammit.
00:58:07I walk here every day.
00:58:13Look, I have some work to do for Sunday.
00:58:16I really must work.
00:58:19Maybe you don't see everything, Jane.
00:58:23Very evening, Sir Henry.
00:58:25As I stood in the centre of that quiet, pleasant English village,
00:58:29I thought of all the tensions
00:58:31that lay in the foundations of the lives that lived there.
00:58:34If they came to life a hundred times,
00:58:36they'd be back in the morning demanding money and we haven't got...
00:58:39We will get the money! We haven't got the money!
00:58:41We will get the money! Where? I promise!
00:58:43And I thought of the one woman who was going to sleep that night
00:58:46in genuine fear of her life.
00:58:48Help me.
00:58:50The protection of the spirits of the wind and the...
00:58:55But little did I realise how right she was to be scared.
00:59:00In my own time.
00:59:02Now, please, stop bringing me here.
00:59:07And how she was not going to see the morning.
00:59:16Mary!
00:59:18Mary!
00:59:25Oh, no. No.
00:59:33George?
00:59:36What is it?
00:59:41Look at the drain here, sir.
00:59:56At first sight, it's shock.
00:59:58Syncope, which has caused the blood vessels in the nose to have hemorrhaged.
01:00:02You say one of the flowers on the wallpaper has turned blue.
01:00:05Well, it had. It's pink again now.
01:00:08I don't know. I don't think it was.
01:00:12Why is this madness?
01:00:14We don't know what we saw.
01:00:16You've got to get that detective to investigate the fortune teller
01:00:19and Nurse Carstairs, Mr Pritchard.
01:00:21There's something terribly wrong about the way she frightened your wife.
01:00:24Yes, thank you, Carol.
01:00:26Can you leave us alone, please?
01:00:31Well, there had now been two suspicious deaths within 36 hours, you see.
01:00:36As news of Mary's death raced through the village,
01:00:39people found themselves asking terrible questions.
01:00:48Well?
01:00:51Is it true?
01:00:53Is it true?
01:00:56Is she dead?
01:00:59Yes.
01:01:01How?
01:01:03They think she died of shock.
01:01:06People don't die of shock, George.
01:01:08Was it you?
01:01:12Did you kill her?
01:01:14Did I kill your wife?
01:01:15Yes.
01:01:16How can you say that to me?
01:01:18How can you?
01:01:20Go away.
01:01:22Go away!
01:01:41It was definitely blue, Jane, despite what George has said.
01:01:44But how?
01:01:46It's not damaged or anything, it's just wallpaper.
01:01:50Oh.
01:01:56Everyone in Little Ambrose was thrown by the events of that morning, Sir Henry.
01:02:00Even Nurse Copling.
01:02:02What am I going to do, Hester?
01:02:04You'll be all right.
01:02:05But this will make me unemployed again,
01:02:07and I thought it was going to be a permanent position.
01:02:09I know Mrs Pritchard was difficult, but I felt at home here.
01:02:13I was making friends.
01:02:14You've still got those friends, Carol.
01:02:16We're not going to go away.
01:02:17No.
01:02:19It must be a very peripatetic kind of life, quite lonely at times.
01:02:23Have you been in it long?
01:02:25Well, I learnt my trade during the war,
01:02:27you know, when we all had to do our bit.
01:02:29I served over at Duxford, and then...
01:02:35Reverend, you don't look very well.
01:02:37Would you like to sit down?
01:02:39I'm sorry.
01:02:40Can I get you a glass of water?
01:02:41No, I'll do it.
01:02:43It must be something I ate.
01:02:46Where are your family, Carol?
01:02:48I don't have any, Miss Marple.
01:02:50Have you a gentleman friend?
01:02:52No.
01:02:58Mr Pritchard tried the same thing with me
01:03:01as he did with Nurse Carstairs, Miss Marple.
01:03:04He tried to teach me a golf swing, but I wouldn't do it.
01:03:07I wouldn't do what he wanted.
01:03:09If you ask me, I think he's still in touch with Susan Carstairs.
01:03:14I heard them talking on the telephone once.
01:03:16I think George Pritchard's a bad man.
01:03:19The way he carries on, I think he must be.
01:03:25Mr Edward Seward has been staying at the club off and on,
01:03:29but he wasn't here on Thursday night.
01:03:31When was he last here?
01:03:33Oh, two, three weeks ago.
01:03:36Let's see.
01:03:39Whoa, whoa, whoa. Go back, go back.
01:03:44What's that name?
01:03:46That is Mr George Pritchard, sir.
01:03:49Is he a member here too?
01:03:51Yes.
01:03:53Yes, I did know Ed Seward.
01:03:55We moved in the same circles for a while.
01:03:59He was, uh...
01:04:01There was resentment.
01:04:03I was seen as new money.
01:04:05There was resentment.
01:04:07I was seen as new money,
01:04:09whereas him and his ilk were blue blood and made sure you knew it.
01:04:13Why didn't you tell me you knew him before?
01:04:15Because he turned up dead on my doorstep
01:04:17and I didn't want to be dragged into it.
01:04:19Look, I was never close to him. I didn't like him.
01:04:21He was a hopeless alcoholic and a thug around women.
01:04:24This man that you weren't close to lent you half a million pounds
01:04:27three years ago for your airline
01:04:29to develop haulage routes into Italy and Greece,
01:04:31a venture that was not successful.
01:04:35Yes, but I paid Ed Seward back.
01:04:37Every filing.
01:04:39You'll find that detail in your documents as well, Inspector.
01:04:42Where were you the morning Ed Seward came to Little Ambrose, George?
01:04:46At Summerling, like I told you.
01:04:49Your housekeeper, Hester Marlwater, says that's another lie.
01:04:52I've had enough of this. Sit down, sir.
01:04:54Look, am I under arrest? Sit down.
01:04:57I didn't see Ed Seward that morning.
01:04:59I haven't heard from him for two years.
01:05:01I don't know why he was here or where his wife is.
01:05:06I'm going to have to ask you to leave, Inspector.
01:05:09My wife died this morning
01:05:11and I have some things that I have to attend to.
01:05:36DOOR OPENS
01:05:48About time you arrived.
01:05:54Yes, hello?
01:05:56Oh!
01:05:58Oh, what an excellent likeness, Hazel.
01:06:02Oh, you have a very distinctive style.
01:06:04Yes, people have often said that about the work, Miss Marple.
01:06:09And what, if I may ask, have been your favourite subjects?
01:06:12Well, I like portraiture, but my real love has always been nature.
01:06:17I like to think that you can see God in nature.
01:06:29Hi, Hess. Got your message.
01:06:31Why didn't you just come round to the surgery?
01:06:35I want an explanation, Jonathan.
01:06:38You're the one who's been stealing from the house, aren't you?
01:06:41The snuff boxes, the carriage clock, jewellery.
01:06:44They're not jewellery.
01:06:46Well, why did you do it?
01:06:48Because that was my parents' stuff.
01:06:50Richard took advantage of my father when he was in the fix.
01:06:53He drove down the price on Summerlee.
01:06:56He died with nothing to his name.
01:06:58But it's not yours any more, Jonathan.
01:07:00I want to get money to marry you, Hess.
01:07:04What?
01:07:05Well, that's why I put up with that insufferable woman for so long.
01:07:08She was my most lucrative patient, Hess.
01:07:10I don't want money. I want you.
01:07:13Don't you know that?
01:07:15Oh, you must take all that stuff back.
01:07:18All that detective will be on to you.
01:07:25I thought that place was abandoned.
01:07:27It is.
01:07:28So why is there a light on?
01:07:32He found you through one of your paintings, didn't he, Hazel?
01:07:35Who?
01:07:37Your husband, Eddie Seward.
01:07:39I imagine he'd looked for you for two years,
01:07:43knowing he'd driven you away, maybe to suicide,
01:07:47sinking deeper into his tunnel of alcohol and guilt.
01:07:52And then, quite by chance,
01:07:55he recognised one of your paintings
01:07:57at Fetty Place, the art dealers in London.
01:08:00Not 172.
01:08:03And even though you changed your name,
01:08:05he recognised it was your hand.
01:08:10Hello?
01:08:12Anyone there?
01:08:14Hello?
01:08:26It's a reader.
01:08:30There's no-one here.
01:08:37Jonathan.
01:08:39Call the police, Hazel.
01:08:42If your husband found you here,
01:08:44it's only a matter of time before they do.
01:08:48They'll understand, Penelope.
01:08:52They'll understand, Penelope.
01:09:16SHE SCREAMS
01:09:21But who was it?
01:09:23The former nurse, Susan Carstairs.
01:09:25Pritchard's mistress?
01:09:27And six months pregnant,
01:09:29with George Pritchard's tie tight around her neck.
01:09:32She'd been installed in the millhouse by George
01:09:35after he made her leave Summerleigh.
01:09:38Detective Somerset found evidence
01:09:40that she had dressed up as Zareeda.
01:09:43He found Mary's missing jewellery on her fingers,
01:09:46and he also found George's fingerprints all over the place.
01:09:50Suddenly he had three suspicious deaths
01:09:52and one missing persons inquiry on his hands,
01:09:55all somehow tangled around George Pritchard.
01:09:59But how and why?
01:10:01You keep everything you've seen to yourself.
01:10:04Can I rely on you both?
01:10:06Detective Somerset decided not to release news of Susan Carstairs' death,
01:10:10but to have George watched while he interviewed Hazel,
01:10:14who had just rung the police station and admitted she was Penelope Seward.
01:10:19News that was already round the village.
01:10:26Philippa. Philippa.
01:10:29What?
01:10:30I suppose you've heard about Hazel.
01:10:32Oh, yes, yes.
01:10:35Caroline and I were just talking about it.
01:10:37Caroline? Hello.
01:10:39Hello, Miss Marple.
01:10:42We think she must have had some kind of thing over my sister.
01:10:48Oh, and Mrs Pritchard recognised her as Penelope Seward?
01:10:51She recognised her, yes.
01:10:53We think she must have killed my sister somehow.
01:10:57I don't think so.
01:10:59I don't think Hazel's a murderer.
01:11:01Then who's been doing this, Miss Marple?
01:11:05Who else could have killed these people?
01:11:08And on this Sunday morning,
01:11:11you remember in our prayers Mary Pritchard,
01:11:16a member of our community who died yesterday.
01:11:21I...
01:11:28Forgive me for saying this.
01:11:31God teaches us that life is valuable.
01:11:35That life is valuable.
01:11:37It's not to be wasted.
01:11:40God, when he judges Mary's life,
01:11:43I fear will judge it to be wasted.
01:11:48God asks us to live our lives in service to him,
01:11:53and not dabbling in fancies and superstitions.
01:11:56I'm sorry to say this, Mr Pritchard,
01:11:59but God teaches us to live our lives
01:12:02so that we can try to be good to one another.
01:12:05Reverend Marwater...
01:12:06Philippa, sit down.
01:12:08Human beings should not be mean and poisonous.
01:12:12I think she was murdered.
01:12:19Philippa, we should leave.
01:12:20No, George, she was murdered by that woman.
01:12:22I know she was.
01:12:23Let's leave.
01:12:24I saw her early yesterday morning coming back from Summerling.
01:12:28Why would Hazel want to murder Mary?
01:12:30Because you were having an affair with her, George.
01:12:34Did you think I wouldn't notice that?
01:12:37Do you think I wouldn't see?
01:12:42And she murdered her husband too.
01:12:47Because the day he died, she was late at the golf club.
01:12:50Sorry. Sorry I'm late.
01:12:52Where had she been if she hadn't been killing him so she could be with you?
01:12:55Where had she been?
01:12:57I did see my husband that morning.
01:12:59He asked me to accept him back.
01:13:01Where did this take place?
01:13:02Well, here. He just turned up and said he'd changed.
01:13:06And that he loved me.
01:13:08And that he'd always loved me.
01:13:10But I told him I would never go back to him.
01:13:13Never go back to him.
01:13:15Are you in on it too, George?
01:13:17Because you're free to marry her now, aren't you?
01:13:19Is that always your plan, to let this...
01:13:21this wasp to come and live in this happy place and then let her stick?
01:13:25Shut up, Philippa!
01:13:26Before you say something, you'll really regret it.
01:13:28Did Pritchard follow your husband?
01:13:30No.
01:13:31How do you know? Were you with him the whole time?
01:13:33I know because George told me he didn't and I have faith in him.
01:13:35Even though you didn't know he was having an affair with Susan Carstairs?
01:13:38I have faith in him.
01:13:39The pregnant Susan Carstairs,
01:13:41who was found strangled yesterday evening with one of George Pritchard's ties.
01:13:47Don't you talk to her like that.
01:13:49Is that the truth, Pritchard?
01:13:51Why, what are you going to do? Write a book?
01:13:53Because if you do, it'll take you 20 years.
01:13:55What page are you on? Are you currently in Magnum Opus?
01:13:58Every talent that you've had, every break,
01:14:01you've wasted it or gambled it away.
01:14:03Oh, look, I see your friends are here.
01:14:07Well, at least I had the good sense to marry the decent sister, George.
01:14:13What did you say?
01:14:14You heard me!
01:14:15That's enough, look...
01:14:16You spent your entire life leeching off me!
01:14:18I've lent you money, I've supported you,
01:14:20and you've resented it all!
01:14:22All of it!
01:14:26I'm so... I'm so sorry.
01:14:28Everyone, I'm...
01:14:31I'm so sorry.
01:14:33Hey, George!
01:14:38Is that the real you?
01:14:40Hey?
01:14:42Here.
01:14:44Take it.
01:14:47Take it. Take it all.
01:14:49Pay for your debts.
01:14:55Oh.
01:15:00I have to speak to the police.
01:15:02You're in no state to speak to anyone, Dermot.
01:15:05It's just something that I ate.
01:15:07But Philippa, she's got it all wrong.
01:15:11What?
01:15:12The morning Mary was found dead,
01:15:14Hazel was not on her way back from Summerleigh.
01:15:18She was coming to see me.
01:15:20Hazel is a devout woman.
01:15:23She takes the vows of marriage very seriously.
01:15:27She was conflicted about her marriage and George's.
01:15:33You knew about her and George.
01:15:36Well, she used me as a...
01:15:39a confessor.
01:15:41I was bound to silence.
01:15:44I was bound to silence.
01:15:48Though that morning she was very distressed,
01:15:52having heard of George's affair with Nurse Carstairs.
01:15:56Well, she didn't know whether she could trust him any more.
01:15:59She loved him so much and...
01:16:01and he had saved her.
01:16:05Oh.
01:16:07So much sin, Jane.
01:16:11And in such a small place as this.
01:16:23Where are you going?
01:16:25I found you.
01:16:27Are you lying again?
01:16:32Before the police arrive, I need to hear the truth from you, George.
01:16:35You painted the wallpaper. You designed it. You...
01:16:38You did some sort of trick.
01:16:40Did you kill Mary and Eddie?
01:16:42You just had to be a bit more patient, that's all.
01:16:45I would have come to you. I would have taken care of you.
01:16:47I promised I would.
01:16:49I'd have found the strength to leave Mary.
01:16:51Did you kill Susan Carstairs?
01:16:54What?
01:16:55They know she was a reader.
01:16:57Just tell the truth.
01:17:04Darling, let's leave. Let's go.
01:17:07I can't leave you. Come on.
01:17:09Come on, come on.
01:17:11Let go of me.
01:17:20He made a full confession, didn't he?
01:17:22Yes, that he'd killed all three.
01:17:24Eddie, Mary and Susan Carstairs herself.
01:17:27The blackmailer was trying to ruin him unless he made her his wife.
01:17:32But you weren't convinced.
01:17:34On the surface, of course, his confession had to be true.
01:17:38But the only reason for it to be false was if he were...
01:17:43Protecting Hazel.
01:17:45Yes, he was taking the fall, as they say in American books,
01:17:48for the one woman he really loved.
01:17:50George Arthur Pritchard.
01:17:52You are charged with the willful murders
01:17:55of Edward Syngin, Hillya Seward, Mary...
01:17:59Suddenly, this morning, I knew I'd been wrong
01:18:02The hearing.
01:18:04Because, Henry, the truth of these murders is quite extraordinary.
01:18:08Do you plead guilty or not guilty?
01:18:11Guilty.
01:18:13Yes, yes.
01:18:15Now, please inform Mr Justice Carmichael
01:18:18that some new evidence has just come to light
01:18:20which has a strong bearing on the case he's hearing.
01:18:23This is Chaloner's knitting box.
01:18:26That's right, my lord.
01:18:28Sir Henry understood the illusion.
01:18:30Did he?
01:18:32And the strand of wool that seemed most knotted to me,
01:18:36that was the key to untangling all the half-knitted jumpers
01:18:40of Mrs Chaloner's grandchildren...
01:18:42Just pull your strand, Miss Marple. We're waiting.
01:18:46Was... If he were planning to kill someone, my lord,
01:18:50would you trust to scaring them to death?
01:18:53Wouldn't you be better making a more secure plan than that,
01:18:56like poisoning them?
01:18:58Are you suggesting that Mary Pritchard was poisoned
01:19:01rather than scared to death?
01:19:03Undoubtedly.
01:19:05By her husband?
01:19:07No, no.
01:19:09George Pritchard has admitted to these crimes
01:19:11because he thinks he's protecting the woman he loves.
01:19:15Of all the seven deadly sins, my lord,
01:19:19George Pritchard is, I think, vanity,
01:19:22the sin from which so many others arise.
01:19:25It led him into foolish relationships with other women
01:19:29and led, I think, to the gluttony of his wife,
01:19:32who, faced with a philandering husband,
01:19:35took to her bed in order to maintain some sort of hold over him.
01:19:39No-one took me seriously and it's about time you all started.
01:19:43And it also led to the dreadful wrath of the woman he spurned
01:19:48all those years ago to go off with her prettier sister.
01:19:55When Reverend Mywater became ill,
01:19:58he said,
01:20:00''It was just something I ate.''
01:20:02And he was right, wasn't he, Philippa?
01:20:04He'd eaten something you'd prepared for Mary.
01:20:07Now, that looks good.
01:20:09Oh, it is, and it's not for you.
01:20:11It's to cheer Mary up.
01:20:16You'd been poisoning her for years, hadn't you?
01:20:20Sick.
01:20:22Day after day, dish after dish.
01:20:25Making life hell for the sister who ruined your dream
01:20:29of marrying the handsome young pie
01:20:31that you loved more than anyone else in the world.
01:20:34I didn't kill Mary, George.
01:20:37I just wanted to punish her.
01:20:40But someone had worked out what you were doing, hadn't they, Philippa?
01:20:46And when Mary died, they scared you into thinking you were responsible.
01:20:50Yes.
01:20:52Into making desperate accusations against George and Hazel
01:20:56to deflect attention away from you.
01:20:59Are you in on it too, George?
01:21:01Because you're free to marry her now, aren't you?
01:21:03Was that always your plan?
01:21:05She told me they would hang me for what I'd done.
01:21:08And she scared you into getting rid of all the poison you'd used.
01:21:13Didn't you, Caroline?
01:21:16Caroline and I were just talking about it.
01:21:19Caroline?
01:21:23My lord, do you know how a wasp trap is made?
01:21:26I do.
01:21:28Well, it struck me today
01:21:30how much cyanide of potassium crystals resemble smelling salts.
01:21:35What do you mean?
01:21:37I suggest, my lord, that Caroline Copling
01:21:40made Mary desperately anxious
01:21:42through her performance as Zalrida, the fortune teller.
01:21:50And on the night of Mary's death,
01:21:52Caroline had swapped the smelling salts for cyanide crystals
01:21:56because it was the cyanide that killed Mary Pritchard.
01:22:01On discovery of Mary's body,
01:22:03Caroline Copling would have had to have acted quickly
01:22:06in the few moments she had in the room alone.
01:22:09Using the smelling salts, she turned the geranium blue.
01:22:14She then returned them
01:22:16and removed the cyanide crystals.
01:22:21But how did the flowers turn blue?
01:22:24Well, my lord, smelling salts are alkaline
01:22:26and I think a nurse with a bedridden patient
01:22:29uses litmus paper, don't they?
01:22:32For those little tests they do.
01:22:34Where blue paper turns red with acid
01:22:37and vice versa with alkalines.
01:22:41How ingenious, then,
01:22:43to paste red litmus paper over a red flower.
01:22:47Near to the bed, of course,
01:22:49where she knew Mary would use her salts
01:22:52and the strong ammonia would turn the flower blue.
01:22:56And then remove the litmus paper afterwards.
01:23:02Knowing it wouldn't bear close scrutiny.
01:23:05Why? Why would I want to kill Mary Pritchard?
01:23:08Because I think you knew the Pritchards from before,
01:23:11didn't you, when you were in the Air Force?
01:23:13I learnt my trade during the war,
01:23:15you know, when we all had to do our bit.
01:23:17I served over at Duxford.
01:23:19And seeing that George was now a millionaire,
01:23:22you thought you'd change your appearance and name
01:23:25and come and see how you could get a piece of it.
01:23:28This is nonsense.
01:23:30So darn nice.
01:23:33Thank you, Henry.
01:23:36I thought it was odd the way Philippa used the word wasp in church.
01:23:40Was that always your plan?
01:23:42To get this wasp to come and live in this happy place and then let her stick?
01:23:46Shut up, Philippa!
01:23:47Such an odd term to use when she'd used it just one day previously
01:23:51to describe the girl in the Air Force who was in the black market.
01:23:55We used to call her the wasp.
01:23:57You'd get stung if you went near her.
01:23:59She had this obsession with money.
01:24:03And that wasp was you, wasn't it, Caroline?
01:24:08How easy it must have been
01:24:10for you to enlist the greedy Susan Carstays into your scheme to scare Mary,
01:24:15then make it look as though she was a reader
01:24:18before disposing of her when she was no longer needed.
01:24:22To further incriminate George Pritchard in the string of deaths.
01:24:26She wanted money.
01:24:28She said with Mary dead and George hanged,
01:24:32Lewis and I would inherit the lot.
01:24:35And she wanted half of it, otherwise she'd tell the police I'd poisoned her.
01:24:40That is a complete lie.
01:24:42You cannot deny it.
01:24:44You cannot deny it.
01:24:47That is a complete lie.
01:24:49You cannot deny it.
01:24:51You said you'd worked hard and had nothing.
01:24:55You deserved it. You deserved the money.
01:24:58Because you are envy, aren't you, Caroline?
01:25:01You saw George Pritchard's wealth
01:25:04and you wanted it for yourself, whatever the cost.
01:25:12Caroline Copping.
01:25:14You are being arrested for the murder of Mary Pritchard.
01:25:18No!
01:25:19And Susan Carstay.
01:25:20No! No! No!
01:25:22Anything you say will be taken down and used as evidence against you.
01:25:25No! No! No!
01:25:28No! No!
01:25:30And the murder of Eddie Stewart.
01:25:32No, Inspector, that was always suicide.
01:25:37The sad end of another love that curdled into bitterness.
01:26:07Well, Jane, I must come and visit you next time.
01:26:11Next time, visit the wasp traps.
01:26:15It'll be lovely to see you.
01:26:17Are you all right, Miss Harper?
01:26:19Yes, yes, it's just been quite a day.
01:26:21Well, as you said to me once, Jane,
01:26:23nothing's settled until it's settled right.
01:26:26No. No, it isn't.
01:26:28Well...
01:26:32Goodbye, Jane.
01:26:33Goodbye.
01:26:41Goodbye.
01:27:11© BF-WATCH TV 2021