She brought mischief to Miss Marple
British actress showcased versatility on stage, film and TV
Geraldine McEwan, who has died aged 82, was an actress of immense versatility, as comfortable depicting the sly and steely as she was the sweet or silly. Whether she was playing a sadistic nun on film (The Magdalene Sisters), or a spry Miss Marple on television, she embraced each part with empathy and vigour.
Petite — and often sporting elfin hairstyles — her appearance belied her ability to invoke momentous emotion (often bubbling just beneath a character’s surface).
“The actress of the year 1969 was Geraldine McEwan,” wrote The Daily Telegraph’s chief drama critic. “Putting aside, if possible, her beauty and her riveting theatricality, consider simply the versatility of this extraordinary actress’s rendering of different women.” Barber called her stage presence “a thing divine.”
Over a career spanning six decades, her work in the theatre brought critical acclaim, along with two Evening Standard best actress awards — for The Rivals and The Way of the World (both at the National Theatre, 1983 and 1995 respectively). But it was with two contrasting TV roles, during the 1980s and 1990s, that she came to the attention of a wider public.
She demonstrated perfect comic timing as Emmeline (Lucia) Lucas, the foil to Prunella Scales as Miss Elizabeth Mapp in Mapp and Lucia (1985-86), based on E.F. Benson’s whimsical novels.
A few years later, she explored the cold hand of maternal love as Jeanette Winterson’s fictionalized mother in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1990).
In later life she was perhaps best known for her performances in the title role for Agatha Christie’s Marple, a modern reboot of Christie’s much-loved mysteries.
The series was a success, but not to everyone’s taste. The productions married an all-star cast — Richard E. Grant, Dan Stevens, Ian Richardson, Timothy Dalton, Joan Collins and Herbert Lom — with an incongruously jaunty soundtrack and quirky camera angles.
Even plots were changed: Lesbian affairs were inserted into two storylines and Miss Marple was given a romantic backstory.
“I think Marple is a sort of heightened reality,” McEwan said tactfully.
“The word ‘adaptation’ should be used rather loosely here, as almost every useful detail of the
“I find her quite inspiring. She has tremendous vitality and, of course, this incredible, diamond-sharp brain. GERALDINE MCEWAN ON PLAYING MISS MARPLE
novel has been altered,” commented one critic about McEwan’s final episode, Nemesis — “a point which tends to rile Christie purists, but has actually been useful in giving these telemovies a fresh air and, on more than one occasion, an entirely different murderer.”
Likewise, McEwan’s Marple was a markedly different protagonist from that of previous screen incarnations. Discarding the matronly delivery of Margaret Rutherford and the intellectual authority of Joan Hickson, McEwan’s spinsterish sleuth practically fizzed with impish glee at the murky goings-on in St. Mary Mead (“Balls,” exclaims Marple at one point).
“I find her quite inspiring,” McEwan said. “She has tremendous vitality and, of course, this incredible, diamond-sharp brain.”
She played Miss Marple from 2004 to 2007, when she handed over the knitting needles, summer hats and spectacles to Julia McKenzie (the series ended in 2013).
She accepted supporting parts in blockbuster films such as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves but found richer fare on the stage, delighting audiences in 1995 as Lady Wishfort in a revival of William Congreve’s Restoration comedy The Way of the World.
McEwan delighted in her late success on screen.
“People are always saying that as you get older as an actor, particularly women, it’s hard to get work, but as far as I’m concerned the past few years have been terrific.”
It was rumoured that she had turned down both an OBE (in 1986) and a damehood (in 2002), although she did not confirm the reports.
McEwan married, in 1953, Hugh Cruttwell, whom she had met at the Theatre Royal in Windsor as a teenager. Cruttwell was the principal of Rada from 1965 to 1984. He died in 2002. McEwan is survived by their son and daughter.