Doctor Who Vs. Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder

Agatha Christie's final novel (but not the last

she wrote) was published posthumously in

1976. Subtitled Miss Marple's Last Case, the

mystery was probably written in 1940, although

Christie scholar John Curran argued that it was completed ten years later.

The book was dramatised for BBC1, starring

Joan Hickson as the definitive Miss Marple, and

was originally broadcast in two parts in January

1987. George Gallaccio (former production

assistant then manager on the classic era)

produced all twelve dramas in the run. An ITV

 version followed in 2006.

Repeated on Drama tonight, the thriller

featured twenty-one Doctor Who cast and

crew connections:

• John Davies was director of The Macra Terror too
• Geraldine Alexander (Gwenda here; Susan in The Tragedy of Marsdon Manor; Blanche for Absent in the Spring) was Areta in Vengeance on Varos
• Big Finish actor Terrence Hardiman (Fane here; Siddaway for The Case of the Missing Will) was Hawthorne in The Beast Below, then voiced King Sitirc for The Book of Kells (2010), Reverend Dobbs for AudioGo's The Broken Crown (2011), Richard Pollard for The Fall of the House of Pollard (2014), Hepworth Stackhouse for The English Way of Death (2015), Sorvix for Escape Room (2018), and Rassilon for Gallifrey: Time War 2 (2019)
• Frederick [William] Treves (Dr. Kennedy; Lacey in The Theft of the Royal Ruby) was Brotadac in Meglos
• John [David] Bennett (Erskine here; Waiter in The Alphabet Murders; Barnsby in Murder at Midnight) was General Finch in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and Li H'sen Chang in The Talons of Weng-Chiang
• David McAlister (West here; DI Glen in The ABC Murders; Dr. Lord for Sad Cypress, both 1992) voiced a Megara for The Stones of Blood
• Esmond [Pennington] Knight (Galbraith) was Dom Issigri in The Space Pirates
• John Ringham (Dr. Penrose) was Tlotoxl (pictured) in The Aztecs, Josiah Blake in The Smugglers, and Robert Ashe in Colony in Space
• Kenneth [Charles] Cope (Afflick) was Packard in Warriors' Gate
• Struan Rodger (voice of Ferdinand here; Van Braks in The Adventure of the Western Star; Merlin for Philomel Cottage) provided the voice of the Face of Boe for New Earth and Gridlock, was Clayton in The Woman Who Lived, then voiced the Kasaavin in Spyfall
• Georgine Anderson (Mrs. Hengrove) was May in Gridlock
• Gary [Garrowby Cawthorne] Watson (Halliday) was Arthur Terrall in The Evil of the Daleks
• Geraldine Newman (Janet) voiced Eliza Applewhite for The Wishing Beast (2007), and Lady Sybil for The Doomwood Curse (2008)
• make-up artist Sheelagh Wells began her career as an uncredited assistant on Planet of the Spiders, worked on Mawdryn Undead, then returned to the show for The Christmas Invasion and the whole of the following season
• Michael Cameron was production manager on Revelation of the Daleks too
• cinematographer Peter Hall had been a film cameraman on The Seeds of Death, The Space Pirates, Colony in Space, Terror of the Zygons and Logopolis
• Judy Pepperdine was costume designer on Warriors of the Deep too
• series film recordist Malcolm Campbell was sound recordist on The Caves of Androzani and The Twin Dilemma
• Victor Meredith was production designer on Shada too
• Thea Murray and Patricia Greenland were also production assistants (PAs) on The Masque of Mandragora and Full Circle and Logopolis respectively