The Stage

Armitage and Seymour to make Marple debuts

Published Monday 15 January 2007 at 15:05 by Liz Thomas

Richard Armitage, Jane Seymour, Juliet Stevenson and Denis Lawson are among the stars appearing alongside Geraldine McEwan in the latest Miss Marple film for ITV1.

Ordeal By Innocence, which also features Lisa Stansfield, Julian Rhind Tutt and Alison Steadman, has been adapted by Stewart Harcourt, who revamped Dracula and also created the television versions of The Pricking Of My Thumbs and A Murder Is Announced in the previous Marple series.

Agatha Christie’s fictional sleuth has proved a massive ratings winner for the network and over the years has attracted a host of big name stars to appear in each film, from Greta Scacchi and Kelly Brook to Timothy Dalton and Dawn French.

Christie remains the most popular novelist in history, with her work being published in 50 languages in over 70 countries and more than two billion of her books sold to date. She has said: “Of my detective books, I think the two that satisfy me best are Crooked House and Ordeal By Innocence.”

LWT began broadcasting Agatha Christie’s Poirot in 1989 and the BBC was previously the producer of the Miss Marple dramas.