Marple: Sleeping Murder
So, I just the recent version of the "Miss Marple" mystery Sleeping Murder, which is my favorite of the Hickson adaptations, and...wow. I've grown to rather like Geraldine McEwan as Jane Marple (I've seen some people say that she plays the role as too openly clever, but I think it often serves the character well) but not even the addition of Sophia Miles and Anna-Louise Plowman could save that mess.
The original plot is rather awesome in that it's essentially a gothic where a brilliant little old lady sorts everything out before the innocent young woman ends up being chased up the stairs by the killer. This was...an absolute mess, really, and the plot was completely gutted to where all that was left was Gwenda's dreams and the dead parents, and most of the focus was on characters they created.
Also, this version seems to have a terrible habit of taking the plots that have perfectly decent, non-intrusive romances and replacing those with new pairings (conveniently hooking the female half up with a male character they created for the adaptation) that ends up rather clunky, and distracts from the plot.
The original plot is rather awesome in that it's essentially a gothic where a brilliant little old lady sorts everything out before the innocent young woman ends up being chased up the stairs by the killer. This was...an absolute mess, really, and the plot was completely gutted to where all that was left was Gwenda's dreams and the dead parents, and most of the focus was on characters they created.
Also, this version seems to have a terrible habit of taking the plots that have perfectly decent, non-intrusive romances and replacing those with new pairings (conveniently hooking the female half up with a male character they created for the adaptation) that ends up rather clunky, and distracts from the plot.