MARPLE - THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
Adam headed to Eastbourne in May 2004 to star in this TV movie
This page carries all the news from the Production.
Adam headed to Eastbourne in May 2004 to star in this TV movie
This page carries all the news from the Production.
Adam's character Raymond Starr is a dancer and a gigolo!
When the mysterious body of a glamorous blonde is found in the library at Gossington Hall, Dolly Bantry (Joanna Lumley) knows she will need all the help she can get to her clear her husband Arthur’s (James Fox) name – so she calls her dear friend, Jane Marple (Geraldine McEwan), whose brilliant mind can solve any tiny village riddle as well as plumb the depths of human iniquity.
Miss Marple, eager to help, arrives immediately to examine the body, much to the annoyance of Colonel Melchett (Simon Callow), the chief of the County Police and good friend of Arthur Bantry, who has personally taken on the murder case.
Independently of each other, Melchett and Miss Marple both wonder if local bad boy, Basil Blake (Ben Miller), has anything to do with the mystery, as he is well known for his loud parties and bottle-blonde girlfriends.
While Basil refuses to let Melchett through the front door, canny Miss Marple has already found an excuse to take tea with him. Both Marple and Melchett find that his blonde girlfriend, Dinah Lee (Emma Cooke), is still very much alive.
Meanwhile, Inspector Harper (Jack Davenport) from the next county, hears that a blonde dancer called Ruby Keene (Emma Williams), employed at the Majestic Hotel, has gone missing. The description fits the body found at Gossington Hall and the deceased’s cousin, Josie Turner (Mary Stockley), is brought in to identify the body.
The identification is positive and Josie, who is the dance and bridge hostess at the Majestic and responsible for getting Ruby her job there, recalls the events of the preceding night. When Ruby didn’t arrive to do her midnight dance exhibition with Raymond Starr (Adam Garcia), Josie was annoyed and presumed Ruby was out with a man.
On the discovery that Conway Jefferson (Ian Richardson), an extremely wealthy old friend of the Bantrys, was the person who first alerted the police to the fact that Ruby was missing, Dolly decides that she and Miss Marple must go to the Majestic Hotel and do a little sleuthing themselves. On the journey to Danemouth, Dolly explains the tragic story of Conway Jefferson’s life. A V2 bomb hit his house during the war, killing his wife, son and daughter, and Conway was left a cripple. He now clings to a surrogate family, which consists of Mark Gaskell (Jamie Theakston), his daughter’s husband, and Adelaide Jefferson (Tara Fitzgerald), his son’s wife. Adelaide also has a son, Peter Carmody, by a previous marriage, who looks to Conway as a grandfather.
On arrival at the rather grand Majestic Hotel, Dolly secures an interview with Conway and introduces Miss Marple to Adelaide and Mark. Much to Dolly and Miss Marple’s surprise, Conway reveals that he was about to adopt Ruby and leave her his fortune. His money will now revert back to Mark and Adelaide. Miss Marple immediately realises that this is the obvious motive for Ruby’s murder. But the medical evidence clearly puts the time of death between 10pm and 11.30pm and Mark and Adelaide were in full view at the hotel, so it can’t have been either of them!
Melchett and Harper arrive and interview the rather forgetful George Bartlett (David Walliams), a hotel guest and the last person to see Ruby alive. He clearly doesn’t have an alibi, but what is his motive? The same goes for Raymond Starr - the rather attractive Argentinean dance and tennis coach - who disappeared for about half an hour at around eleven o’clock.......
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MARPLE: THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY is adapted by Kevin Elyot, produced by Matthew Read and directed by Andy Wilson. The executive producers are Michele Buck and Damien Timmer for ITV, Phil Clymer for Agatha Christie Limited and Rebecca Eaton for WGBH Boston. AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MARPLE is co-produced by Granada, Agatha Christie Limited and WGBH production for ITV1.
