A Murder is Announced (3/3)

The final part of A Murder is Announced has to land, and it does. A third murder occurs, and Miss Marple is only just able to prevent a fourth. The count is climbing, and the danger has stopped being abstract. It is no longer a mystery to be solved over tea. It is a threat with a face and a schedule, and Inspector Craddock is alarmed to find Miss Marple missing at exactly the wrong moment. The obvious question sits there unanswered: has she become another victim of the murderer?

The episode was written by Agatha Christie with Alan Plater, directed by David Giles, and first shown on 2 March 1985. The cast is the same dependable roll call that carried the first two parts: Ursula Howells as Miss Blacklock, Samantha Bond as Julia Simmons, Simon Shepherd as Patrick Simmons, Nicola King as Phillipa Haymes, Elaine Ives-Cameron as Hannah, Ralph Michael and Sylvia Syms as the Easterbrooks, Matthew Solon and Mary Kerridge as the Swettenhams. There are no weak links in it; the BBC of this era knew how to stock a mystery with faces you half-recognise and trust immediately. Joan Hickson remains Miss Marple throughout, the one thing in the story that never wobbles.

What the finale does well is keep the focus on Marple herself. For once the questions are about her. She is the one being looked for, out of reach at the moments the investigation needs her most. The body count climbs, and the suspense is honest because nobody, including the audience, is certain of her safety. It is a neat reversal for a character who usually sits on the sidelines of her own case, knitting and watching.

It's a taut finish to a good mystery, and it earns its running time by making its heroine walk a fine line between detection and danger. Miss Marple is usually the calmest person in the room. Watching her forced off that ground, even briefly, is the best kind of unsettlement.