Saturday, 17 May 2025

Marple Double Bill: At Bertram's Hotel (2007 Dan Zeff) / Ordeal By Innocence (2007 Moira Armstrong)

Bertram's well covered here and here.

I read up on Martine McCutcheon, a muddled life. Her father abused her mum, was denied access to her. She was killed off from Eastenders by a vengeful producer. She miscarried and was in more than one unsuccessful relationship. She won the Laurence Olivier Award and was super-popular for Love Actually but then had no follow-up career. Her Insta is all about posing for the camera. She was declared bankrupt in 2013. She's a fabulous presence and this is what makes this film one of the best in the series, particularly when paired with war-weary cop Stephen Mangan.

And it's Julian Rhind Tutt who makes the best impression in the follow-up film (both from the third season) as a diffident anthropologist who is unable to help poor Juliet Stevenson. Unfortunately I remembered the identity of the culprit early on. And what an incestuous 'family'. Bryan Dick is having an affair with 'sister' Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Richard Armitage has been having it away with his sister-in-law Stephanie Leonidas!

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