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Julia McKenzie, returns as Agatha Christie’s famous spinster sleuth Miss Marple and is joined by a glittering cast in The Secret of Chimneys.
The Secret of Chimneys stars Jonas Armstrong (Robin Hood, The Street), Michelle Collins (Hotel Babylon, EastEnders), Stephen Dillane (Macbeth, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall), Edward Fox (Oliver Twist, Day of the Jackal), Adam Godley (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Cor Blimey!), Anthony Higgins (Judge John Deed), Mathew Horne (Gavin and Stacey, Horne and Cordon), Ruth Jones (The Street, Gavin and Stacey), Dervla Kirwan (Law & Order: UK, Doctor Who) and Charlotte Salt (Tudors, Beowulf).
A lavish weekend party sees Miss Marple accompany Lady Virginia Revel (Charlotte Salt) to her family home of Chimneys, a house which was once prized for its diplomatic gatherings until a rare diamond was stolen from the premises over twenty years ago.
Virginia must decide by the end of the weekend whether to accept a marriage proposal from the tenacious career politician George Lomax (Adam Godley) or to follow her heart and the courtship of another more adventurous suitor, Anthony Cade (Jonas Armstrong).
Throughout the course of the evening, a contract for the sale of the house is drawn up only for the purchaser to be found dead in a secret passageway within its walls.
Chief Inspector Battle (Stephen Dillane) arrives from Scotland Yard to investigate, enlisting Miss Marple’s help. When the bones of a long dead servant are uncovered, Miss Marple begins to realise that the secret of Chimneys is darker than even she had realised.
The Secret of Chimneys has been adapted by Paul Rutman and directed by John Strickland. Karen Thrussell produces both current Marple and Poirot series.
Renowned for her work with Stephen Sondheim, Julia has starred in The Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic, and has achieved numerous awards, both on Broadway and in the West End. She won an Olivier for her performance as Mrs Lovett in the National Theatre production of Sweeney Todd. Julia has appeared in Cranford as Mrs Forrester and the critically acclaimed Notes on a Scandal. Earlier credits include Fresh Fields, Bright Young Things and Blott on the Landscape.
Julia is the seventh actress to take on the much-loved character of Miss Marple on screen, following in the footsteps of Geraldine McEwan, Gracie Fields, Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury, Helen Hayes and Joan Hickson.
The Marple stories are co-produced by ITV Studios and Agatha Christie Ltd, a Chorion company, and US network WGBH. Mammoth Screen’s Michele Buck and Damien Timmer executive produce Marple on behalf of ITV Studios. Rebecca Eaton is Executive Producer for WGBH.
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. As well as the renowned Poirot and Miss Marple series, Christie also wrote the detective series Tommy and Tuppence and a wealth of other murder mysteries and thrillers between 1920 and 1976 including the bestselling And Then There Were None and the record breaking play The Mousetrap.
LWT began broadcasting Agatha Christie's Poirot in 1989 and the BBC was previously the producer of the Miss Marple dramas.
