ITV poaches Miss Marple from BBC

ITV has poached veteran sleuth Miss Marple from the BBC in a landmark deal which will also see the return of Poirot, it was announced today.

The network has signed an exclusive deal for the Agatha Christie characters which will see a remake of the Poirot classic Death On The Nile.

TV chiefs are now looking to cast the role of Miss Marple with actresses such as Dame Maggie Smith, Julie Walters and Prunella Scales among the names being floated.

“Britain has no dearth of older, posh actresses,” said John Whiston, director of drama at programme maker Granada.

“It’s a great role and you can imagine people will be keen.”

Under the deal ITV will show 24 hours of Christie adaptations over a four-year period. It will plough around £18m (€28.3m) into the productions and is looking for an international firm to top it up.

The BBC, which has previously adapted the Miss Marple mysteries, was also bidding for the rights.

But Mr Whiston said ITV was seen as “safer hands” for the dramas, even though he imagined the BBC had put in a higher bid.

Poirot has been with ITV for the past 13 years and the new deal will see three more films made, starring David Suchet.

Mr Whiston said the enthusiasm of ITV drama chiefs for Christie’s works and the chance of a bigger audience were the clinchers for Agatha Christie Ltd when the rights were awarded.

“They want exposure and they want it to be successful. They’re going to get three to four million more than they would on the BBC.”

Mr Whiston was also critical of the BBC’s approach to drama, saying the corporation was “crap” at it.

He accused the BBC of throwing money at it by snapping up the rights to books and then getting in a big name writer like Andrew Davies to polish it up for the screen.

Mr Whiston – a former BBC high-flyer – said that many of corporation’s bigwigs did not even bother to watch the dramas they produce.

“But if you mention the latest Arena on The Tango at the Programme Review Board, you can’t shut them up.”