4.50 from Paddington is probably my favourite Agatha Christie novel. I was kind of hesitant to watch a television version of it. I love Christie's work and practically have all her books memorized at this point, so it sometimes makes me cringe when I see televised versions of them that are often so far from the original as to make them almost unrecognizable. This was not one of those, happily. I understand taking some liberties with the storyline, such as Harold's wife being included at the house, even the way they changed Harold's character somewhat, and other little changes. But....you know how you sometimes visualize how the characters would look from reading a book? Cedric is NOTHING like I imagined, and doesn't act/do anything really that he did in the book.This did take away from it a little for me. Also, changing the old man to being more affable, and heartbroken over his wife's death, is a really far departure from the book. He was much more of a formidable, yet amusing,(to me, at least!) character in the book. In this television movie, he was bland and forgettable. The thing that made me not like this movie as much as I would have is this: There is absolutely NO WAY Jane Marple would have thrust herself onto as a guest or stayed in the same house alone with a man (Insp. Campbell) without a chaperon. It would offend all of her maidenly sensibilities. This was a VERY far departure for both the story, in which she stayed with her former maid, and for the character of Miss Marple. The rest of the characters were much as I had imagined them, especially John Hannah as the Inspector. Geraldine McKewan is a light, twinkling Marple. I enjoyed her performance. I disagree with people saying she's not serious enough to play Jane Marple. Christie always painted Miss Marple as being sharp as a tack, but always outwardly pretending to be a fluffy, dithering elderly lady. Ms. McKewan plays this to perfection. I think the main reason I didn't mind this televised depiction of my favourite Christie novel, and enjoyed it for the most part, is that the novel left Lucy's romantic choice up in the air, whereas this one made her choice clear. (It may help that the choice indicated was always the choice I had made in my head for her!) I recommend this for other Christie-philes. :)
