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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 384228" data-attributes="member: 23">The Moving Finger Parts One & Two <img src="https://www.silversirens.co.uk/pictures/moving-finger-1985-opening-credits-2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 809px" /> <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.mubicdn.net%2Fimages%2Ffilm%2F188986%2Fcache-284757-1525021515%2Fimage-w1280.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6dbd4243174321f63766678cac1b6cfcbd8a19f986d6a8f8f6ae5178cec6ff23&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 815px" />Comparing this story with the previous one, each has quite a different appeal. The writing in The Moving Finger is enjoyable and pithy, but does lack some of The Body In The Library’s wit. In the earlier adaption there seemed to be memorable line after memorable line. The Moving Finger has characters who are enjoyable judgemental and snobby, but with less edge. Even Jane Marple herself - who had tut tutted at victim’s lack of class in Library - seems less inclined to judge here.I suspect the key reason behind these differences might be the different screenwriters. T.R. Bowen had adapted Library, while The Moving Finger is dramatised by Julia Jones. I suspect the different writing styles will be the key reason for the different tone.Thanks to the consistent production, Joan Hickson’s performance and (presumably) the faithfulness to the source material, none of these differences feel malapropos. Quite the opposite: it feels right that each story should have its own voice.It’s worth noting that the running time for this adaption is over a third less than its predecessor: at just over an hour and forty minutes, it’s 55 minutes shorter than Body. This makes the story more accessible, since it’s not difficult to watch in one sitting, creating a more immersive, cinematic experience. Mileage will vary, of course, and there are those who will enjoy spreading out the story over several nights. For me, though, the two-part stories are preferable to the three-parters.Something else that went in The Moving Finger’s favour was its intimacy. While I greatly enjoyed the seaside location work in the first story, this one stayed in the quaint English village setting. Not St Mary Mead, but Lymstock which is presumably very close by since Jane seemed to know her way round the place and people. As a result, she looked very much at home here.Familiar faces abound from the world of British film and television, many of them “familiar unknowns” who popped up in supporting character parts left, right and centre.As with Body, it’s some are people I strongly associate with that decade. Sabina Franklyn immediately brings to mind a couple of sitcoms (No Place Like Home and Keep It In The Family); then there’s Elizabeth Counsell, best remembered as Veronica in Brush Strokes. And Sandra Payne, the daughter-in-law from Waiting For God. Juliet Waley’s round face looked familiar, though I can’t place her in much other than a small role in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (looks like she was in a lot of Angels episodes, so perhaps I saw her in that when I was young).Imogen Bickford-Smith looks very much like a proto Gwyneth Paltrow. Curiously, I initially mistook both she and Deborah Appleby for The Upper Hand’s Diana Weston, with Deborah the one who cast more doubt in my mind regarding this (she was stuck with playing the most unlikable character yet seen in this series: a whiny, self-centred brat who inflicted herself on a wealthy eligible man and wouldn’t leave him be until romance developed. Appropriately enough, she was named Megan).Then there are those older character actors. The only ones I could name without looking were Liz Smith* and Victor Maddern, the latter of whom has an extensive filmography, with his handful of Carry Ons being the ones that properly introduced me to him. Gordon Rollings is another one I know from a Carry On (he was the night porter in Doctor), but he’s another who’s cropped up in loads. Oh, and Gerald Sim, the rector from To The Manor Born, is a coroner here.Two really familiar faces that I still haven’t been able to place for one specific role were Richard Pearson and Hilary Mason. Richard’s voice should certainly have been familiar to me, since he was Mole in The Wind In The Willows, but he looked instantly familiar as well. How interesting to see he’d previously appeared alongside an inferior Marple in the 1980 American adaption The Mirror Crack’d. * Oh, I meant Patsy Smart - post Upstairs Downstairs - rather than Liz Smith. Apparently I get them confused.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?