Doctor Who Vs. Marple: Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Julia McKenzie made her debut as

Jane Marple in the fourth run of

ITV's Agatha Christie mysteries,

succeeding Geraldine McEwan in

the title role.

The Queen of Crime's fifteenth

crime novel (which did not actually

feature Marple) was published in

the UK in 1934, then issued as

The Boomerang Clue in America

a year later.

The story was first dramatised by

 LWT in 1980, and co-starred Joan

Hickson before she began her own

definitive portrayal of Marple for
the BBC. A lavish, new TV version

(a co-production from Mammoth Screen) debuted on Britbox in April

2022. This adaptation (which premiered in America in July 2009, then

only aired in the UK two years later) was shown on ITV3 today - it

starred Georgia Moffet, Mark Williams, Natalie Dormer, Rik

Mayall, and thirteen Doctor Who cast/crew connections:

• Samantha [Jane] Bond (Sylvia here; Julia in A Murder is Announced, 1985; Stella in The Adventure of the Cheap Flat; Narrator of Inside the Mind of Agatha Christie, 100 Years of Poirot and Miss Marple, Agatha Christie's England & The Hollow, 2020) was Mrs. Wormwood in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Invasion of the Bane and Enemy of the Bane, then reprised for Big Finish's The Revenge of Wormwood (2023), and also voiced Mother Baroque for The Scapegoat (2009)
• Sean Biggerstaff (Attfield) voiced Chris Parsons for Shada (2003), Snabb/Brother Tangent for The Skull of Sobek, the Ruhk for Time Reef (both 2008), Ross Nicholson for Masters of Earth (2014), Moros for Gallifrey: Enemy Lines (2016), Callum Volta for Cold Vengeance (2017), Noah for Jenny 1 (2018), Jenny 2 (2021) and Prism (2022), and David Campbell for After the Daleks
• Richard [David] Briers (Wilson here; Binster in Murder She Said) was the Chief Caretaker in Paradise Towers
• Helen [Margaret] Lederer (Marjorie) voiced Patricia Ryder for Death in Blackpool (2009)
• Basher Savage (George) voiced Yanikov for Earth Aid (2011)
• Siwan Morris (Florrie) was Maebh's Mum for In The Forest of the Night
• Nicholas Hopkins was also assistant director on Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways
• for Alex Kaye-Besley (assistant director) see Murder is Easy
• for Tom Lucy (stunt co-ordinator) see At Bertram's Hotel
• for Sean Clayton (second assistant director) and Nigel Squibbs (dubbing mixer) see The Body in the Library
• for Gavin Walters (gaffer) see A Pocket Full of Rye