Miss Marple Miss Marple Miss Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. An elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective, she is one of the most loved and famous of Christie's characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in "The Royal Magazine" in December 1927, "The Tuesday Night Club", which later became the first chapter of "The Thirteen Problems" (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in "The Murder at the Vicarage"
Miss Marple (TV series) Helen Hayes for television broadcast. Thus these three titles were the last to be dramatised under the BBC's agreement. The adaptations are mainly true to the original novels. Joan Hickson, who played Miss Marple, was an octogenarian herself during most of the series' production. Decades before, she had appeared in a minor role in "Murder, She Said", in which Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple. Hickson had also appeared in a stage adaptation of the novel "Appointment with Death" in 1946, after which Christie sent Hickson a note that read, "I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple."