Miss Marple Morton adapted the novel for the stage, he replaced the character of Caroline with a young girl. This change saddened Christie and she determined to give old maids a voice: Miss Marple was born. Christie may have taken the name from Marple railway station, through which she passed, or from Marple Hall, near her sister Madge's home at Abney Hall. The character of Jane Marple in the first Miss Marple book, "The Murder at the Vicarage", is markedly different from how she appears in later books. This early version of Miss Marple is a gleeful gossip and not an especially
Miss Marple of it. Actress Joan Hickson (who would later play the role of Miss Marple in 1984-92) plays the daily in the household. The other Rutherford films, all directed by Pollock, were "Murder at the Gallop" (1963), based on the 1953 Hercule Poirot novel "After the Funeral" (in this film, she is identified as Miss JTV Marple, though there was no indication as to what the extra initials might stand for); "Murder Most Foul" (1964), based on the 1952 Poirot novel "Mrs McGinty's Dead"; and "Murder Ahoy!" (1964). The last film is not based on any Christie work but displays a