I'm getting tired of talking about Miss Marple, Agatha Christie's redoubtable spinster with the criminal-tracking ability of a bloodhound.

Useless to discuss plot, without giving too much away. I think it's safe to say this one concerns a strange body found in a posh home's library. And it's stone-cold dead.

This is a beautiful dramatisation as usual from the Granada production company, with a strong cast headed by the best Miss Marple yet to hit the big or little screen, Geraldine McEwan. And before you write complaints about putting the wonderful Margaret Rutherford into second-place, just remember that her series of 1960s movies weren't really whodunnits -- they were splendidly eccentric comedies posing as Miss Marple whodunnits.

Just take a look at the cast. There's the always totally delectable Tara Fitzgerald, whom you'll remember as the most drop-dead desirable object in the movie Sirens, as well as playing a mean flugelhorn in Brassed Off. And there's Ian Richardson,, Joanna Lumley and even Simon Callow. That could be called depth in casting.

It's a pity there's only four in the series to date; we can only hope that Granada can coerce Geraldine McEwan into donning her county-spinster threads again for another cycle of Christie tales.

It's a reasonable, softish but not absolutely brilliant anamorphic image. Sound is first-rate. There are no extras, unlike on the four-disc Region One box-set -- see the review of 4.50 from Paddington for details of those.