Rutherford’s right riotous ride as Christie’s snoop Miss Marple - my verdict on Dame Margaret's films

My view is not coloured by knowledge of the original source. Don’t howl, I have read Christie but I prefer her Tommy and Tuppence Beresford novels.

The triumph of Murder Most Foul, Murder at the Gallop, Murder Ahoy and Murder She Said is Rutherford. Never mind she comes from Milchester rather than St Mary Mead and that she has few of the traits of Marple from the books.

Fans complained that the emphasis on the “dotty element in the character” missed entirely “the quietness and sharpness” so admired in the novels.

Unlike the actresses who played Marple on the small screen – Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan and Julie McKenzie – and the big screen incarnations including Angela Lansbury – Rutherford is all hustle, bustle and eccentricity.

Hers is a loud, forthright and unabashed snoop. She is a formidable foe – she fences, rides, shoots and sails a boat. She is dotty and determined.

Perhaps, the only thing she has in common with the other Marples, is she is a spinster.

Christie disliked Rutherford’s characterisation – however she came round and dedicated her novel The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side “To Margaret Rutherford in admiration”.

Rutherford reprised the role of Miss Marple in an uncredited cameo in the 1965 film The Alphabet Murders – based on Christie’s the ABC Murders and in which Tony Randall played Hercule Poirot.

Murder She Said was the first in the series and was made in 1961. It was followed by Murder at the Gallop, Murder Most Foul and Murder Ahoy.

All are in black and white which adds to their atmosphere – there is always a thunderstorm, people creeping about in the dark and our snooping heroine in danger.

There are nods to the books – In Murder She Said, Marple witnesses a strangulation on a train, the premise of 4.50 from Paddington.

In all the films Rutherford has to inveigle herself into a company – in She Said she becomes a maid at an estate, in Most Foul she joins a travelling theatre troupe, in Gallop she books in as a guest to a hotel and in Ahoy she joins a ship’s company.

The films play to Rutherford’s comic talents. She found screen fame with her first role as Madam Arcati in the film adaptation of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit – and roles from then on were similar for the ‘spaniel jowelled’ stout, Pilsbury dough-faced Rutherford.

The cream of then British acting talent featured in the films: Joan Hickson, Megs Jenkins, James Robertson Justice, Robert Morley, Dennis Price, Denholm Elliott, Ron Moody and Lionel Jeffries. There were early roles for Francesca Annis and James Bolam.

The recurring characters are Marple’s sidekick – the mild-mannered, devoted Mr Stringer played by Rutherford’s real-life husband Stringer Davies and Inspector Craddock played by Charles Tingwell – who makes the most of the role as plod continually usurped by Marple’s sharper, more shrewd murder-solving powers.

The Margaret Rutherford films can be seen on Freeview channels – I rely on my DVD boxset – perfect rainy day viewing.