Doctor Who Vs. Marple: The Body in the Library

This classic murder mystery was dramatised as the first episode

of Marple (a co-production from

ITV Studios, Agatha Christie Ltd

and WGBH Boston) and debuted in December 2004. Geraldine

McEwan (1932-2015) now

adopted the mantle of the Queen of Crime's Jane Marple. The second television adaptation of

the mystery followed the (more faithful) three-part BBC version

of 1984.

There's a rare example of the

writer name checking herself

(and Dorothy L Sayers) here,

whilst another Christie creation (Ariadne Oliver) wrote a book entitled The Body in the Library (see Cards

on the Table). Both the Lewis and Doctor Who and episodes (And the

Moonbeams Kiss the Sea and The Unicorn and the Wasp respectively)

refer to "the body in the library." Loosely based on Christie's second Marple novel (published in 1942), the case was repeated on ITV3 today

- it featured twenty-one Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Ben [Evan] Miller (Blake) played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robot of Sherwood
• Florence Hoath (Pamela) was Nancy in The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances 
• Joanna [Lamond] Lumley (Dolly Bantry, here & The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side; Narrator of The Agatha Christie Code) was the Doctor in The Curse of the Fatal Death
• James [born William] Fox (Bantry here; Colonel Race in Death on the Nile, 2004) voiced Professor Chronotis for Big Finish's Shada
• Simon [Philip Hugh] Callow (Melchett here; Dr. Lutz in The Labours of Hercules; Narrator of The Hollow, 2020) was Charles Dickens in The Unquiet Dead and The Wedding of River Song, then provided the voice of Tree Blathereen in The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Gift
• Robin Soans (Dr. Haydock) was Luvic in The Keeper of Traken, and the Chronolock Guy in Face the Raven
• Adam [Gabriel] Garcia (Starr here; Italian in Murder on the Orient Express, 2017; Syd in Death on the Nile, 2022) was Alex Klein in The Christmas Invasion
• David [Edward] Walliams (Bartlett here; Tommy Beresford in Partners in Crime) appeared in Doctor Who Night sketches, voiced Quincy Flowers and Ned Cotton for Phantasmagoria (1999), then was Gibbis in The God Complex 
• Zoe Thorne (Florence) provided the voice of the Gelth in The Unquiet Dead, and the Toclafane in The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords
• Miles Richardson (Jefferson here; Myers in Witness for the Prosecution, 2021) was Captain Douglas Cavendish in Reeltime's Downtime and Daemos Rising, Draconian in Mindgame, and Soldier in White Witch of Devil's End, then voiced Black Rod for The Gunpowder Plot, Charles Darwin for Bloodtide (2001), and Irving Braxiatel from Zagreus (2003) to Gallifrey: Time War 4 (2021)
• Marc Warren (Ainsworth here; Blake in Five Little Pigs) was Elton Pope in Love & Monster
• Greg Bennett (PC here, Ordeal by Innocence, A Pocket Full of Rye; Villager in The Blue Geranium) was Sycorax Warrior/UNIT Soldier in The Christmas Invasion, and Guest in The Lazarus Experiment
• Sean Clayton was also second assistant director on Dalek and Father's Day
• Francesco Reidy was also first assistant director on The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky 
• Holly Lumsden and Kim McGarrity were also stunt performers on the revived series (the former on Rose, and the latter on five stories (from The Empty Child to New Earth)
• Nigel Squibbs (assistant dubbing mixer) and producer Damien Timmer both worked on An Adventure in Space and Time
• Richard Magrin was also SFX technician on twelve episodes (from The Girl in the Fireplace to Last of the Time Lords), The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood
• digital compositors James D Etherington and Melissa Butler Adams both worked on the recent series (the former on Midnight, The Next Doctor, and The Big Bang, and the latter on twenty other instalments from The Christmas Invasion to Last of the Time Lords)