Gentle readers, Afficionados of Agatha Christie mysteries will have one more chance to see an original Miss Marple mystery on Masterpiece Mystery! this Sunday. My good friend Hillary Major has reviewed the last episode. What did she think? She thought it was well worth her while, as did I. See this episode on Sunday, July 26th, at your local PBS television station. The series airs 9 pm local time.
When vicar’s son Bobby Jones (Sean Biggerstaff) discovers a dying man abandoned on a Welsh cliffside, he is determined to elucidate the man’s cryptic final words: “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” Fortunately, Bobby has help — from childhood friend (and romantic interest), the impetuous Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent (played by Georgia Moffett), and from an old friend of the family, just arrived in town for a visit.
Miss Marple doesn’t appear in Agatha Christie’s mystery novel Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (first published in the U.S. as The Boomerang Clue), but the good-humoured tension between the mild-mannered detective and the eager young pair of would-be gumshoes makes the opening of this Masterpiece Theatre episode sparkle. While critics could argue, with some merit, that Miss Marple’s presence is extraneous to the plot and that, in fact, the stakes would be higher if her protégés were forced to discover the truth on their own, it is hard to complain when Julia McKenzie is on the screen. Miss Marple may appear to be absorbed in her knitting, but McKenzie’s bright eyes are keenly tracking Bobby and Frankie at they plot to uncover the criminal, and soon Miss Marple is an acknowledged co-conspirator. Viewers of many ages will feel a bit smug when Miss Marple proves, time and again throughout the episode, that older is wiser when it comes to solving mysteries.
The search for the murderer sends Bobby, Frankie, and Miss Marple “undercover” to the Savage family estate, where suspects abound — the recently widowed and seemingly out-of-touch matriarch Sylvia Savage; the suspiciously ubiquitous psychiatrist; Mr. Evans, former business associate of the deceased and, like most orchid-lovers in fiction, just a bit creepy; not to mention the truly creepy Thomas Savage, a teenager who spends most of his time with his pet snake. Then there are the psychiatrist’s beautiful but disturbed wife and the handsome young piano teacher, who between them manage to complicate Bobby and Frankie’s blooming courtship.
Immune to such distractions, it is Miss Marple who begins to suspect that the heart of the matter may lie in the Savage family’s past, in time spent in China between the world wars. Christie has cleverly used the personal drama to illustrate a larger, societal guilt surrounding Britain’s post-WWII relationship with China. As one of her characters puts it in Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, when Britain withdrew their presence they “practically gave it to the Japanese.” While this political issue creates an underlying frisson in the episode, the focus really is on individual crimes and their consequences, as the Savage history is revealed.
Although a few of the plot point may stretch the viewer’s credulity (like the chance meeting of Bobby and Frankie at the beginning of the episode or Bobby’s semi-successful impersonation of a chauffeur), overall, the mystery is well-structured and makes for an action-filled hour-and-a-half. With eye-catching cinematography, strong acting, and a complicated knot to unravel, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? will be appreciated by many a Sunday-evening armchair sleuth.
Jane Austen's World 
I am wondering why you blocked me on twitter? I am new to the twitterverse and would like to know if I did something wrong, I adore Jane Austen, and love your blog.
Looking forward to your reply.
calicocado
Sue, please let me know your twitter address and I will accept you. Email me at janeaustensworld [@] gmail dot com.
I have blocked addresses that 1) do not have an avatar and 2) show no tweets. Also, Twitter has deleted a lot of sites that were problematic, so I lost around 140 followers in 2 days.
After “cleaning” house, I realize that some folks were legitimate. Thank you so much for following this blog and for joining me on Twitter.
Vic
[…] Full review on this blog on Why Didn’t They Ask Evan? […]
[…] 5% – New York, NY Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Last Miss Marple Episode to be Shown … Jul 23, 2009 When vicar's son Bobby Jones (Sean Biggerstaff) discovers a dying man abandoned […]
I found your review when I went searching to see reactions to the latest and rather radically revised screen version of Agatha Christie’s Book: “Why didn’t they ask Evans” and found your following comment interesting: “Christie has cleverly used the personal drama to illustrate a larger, societal guilt surrounding Britain’s post-WWII relationship with China.” FYI: Agatha Christie never did any such thing (although it is almost too bad she didn’t), it was all the writer, producers, director, etc.’s doing. The whole China backstory is their fabrication and not even a hint of it can be found in the book. Although she is adored for her very English drawing room murder mysteries, her preferred foreign local was the Mid-East due to her experience on second husband’s numerous archaelogy digs. From what I have read, Agatha Christie intentionally kept politics out of her mysteries or at least kept her personal opinion neutral so much so she created a fake country for political intrigue that appears in a few of her books.
Although, I usually prefer any screen versions of any book to be faithfull to the book whenever possible I did’t find the insertion of Mrs. Marple unpleasant and found the China angle intriguing, although a bit implausible in spots. I think Julia McKenzie is a marvelous Jane Marple.
I am a big Jane Austen fan, I read her often when I need a bit of boosting up. Have you read Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mysteries? Usually if a real person is used as a sleuth it often doesn’t work, but Ms. Barron is clearly extraordinarily well versed in the work and life of Jane Austen.
C.S.,
Thanks for pointing out my error. The China storyline — crucial to the character motivations in the episode — is indeed an addition/alteration on the part of the and appears nowhere in Christie’s novel.
I haven’t read Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen books, but I will have to check them out. A little murder & mayhem may be a light alternative to my current Austen-related reading. (I admit to being rather bogged down in Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, though I am looking forward to re-reading Northanger Abbey afterward.)
[…] A dying man’s last words turn young Bobby Attfield into an amateur detective. With the help of two assistants, beautiful socialite Frankie Derwent and family friend Jane Marple, he sets out to solve the riddle they pose. When someone tries to kill Bobby, it only strengthens his resolve. A trail of clues leads the unlikely trio to Castle Savage and its strange inhabitants, the discovery of yet another murder, and the lingering question: why didn’t they ask Evans? Read our review in this link. […]
I enjoy viewing your site, your blogging style is great and I enjoy reading your posts
this is sooooooooo ridiculous, putting miss marple in “why didn’t they ask evans”
well, I suppose I’m too old fashion to abide these changes in my favourite christies
nevertheless, your review is interesting
The British did not have any military presence in China during the 1930s
that could have deterred the Japanese Invasion of China. This totally ridiculous adaptation
is set in the early 1950s while the novel is set in the 1930s. The idea that an orphanage
in China (which went communist in 1948) could benefit from the will of a dead capitalist
is ludicrous. Neither the scriptwriter not yourself seem to have actually looked at the history of the period, but then nobody bothers to check their facts nowadays. The producers of the
Marples series have demonstrated that their utter contempt extends to both their audience and the author herself, whose works are frequently changed beyond recognition. In my view this is the worst adaptation of all. It all seems like a French farce where nothing is to be taken seriously, especially the ending where the butler actually commits cold-blooded murder. A waste of anybody’s time or patience.
I must echo the remarks of others who have been dissatisfied with these “adaptations” of Agatha Christie’s works, inserting Miss Marple where she does not belong. This makes 3 such works which I have seen (Why Didn’t They Ask Evans; The Secret of Chimneys; The Pale Horse), and they all pale in comparison to Mystery adaptations of actual Jane Marple stories. The political back stories to some of the adaptations are problematic, as Agatha Christie deliberately worked for the most part within a constrained, familiar world. Similarly, Jane Marple was familiar with a constrained social world as well — albeit a very rich one, given that her deductive acumen came from a lifetime of in-depth observation of others, and the uncanny ability to draw “village parallels” to the facts presented in murder mysteries. The Miss Marple we have known from Agatha Christie’s books is not someone who hears of a crime and goes off from her village to gather clues and interview witnesses like other detectives — that more brisk, peripatetic version (most evident in “The Pale Horse”) strikes me as being more Margaret-Rutherford-as-Miss-Marple vs. Miss-Marple-by-Agatha-Christie. It shows that you cannot simply choose an Agatha Christie mystery, insert your notion of Jane Marple, and turn it into a true Miss Marple mystery. There are too many bumps along the way, too many incongruities that pop up in the storyline. If there is a desire to capture the audience of those who enjoy the Miss Marple character, then simply do a new adaptation of a story that has been done before with another cast — that has certainly been done to great effect with many classics, and I venture to say that Agatha Christie mysteries are in their own ways, classics of story-telling. Unfortunately, although I like Julia MacKenzie as an actress, I definitely feel that she fails to capture the essence of Miss Marple in both look and manner. Geraldine McEwan really seemed to nail it for me in that regard, although I also appreciated Joan Hickson’s version.