THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS
PRODUCTION NOTES
***The information contained herein is strictly embargoed from all press
use, non commercial publication, or syndication
until Saturday 4th December 2010 ***
Press release
Page 3
Cast list
Page 4
Julia McKenzie is Miss Marple
Page 5
Dervla Kirwan is Bundle
Page 7
Synopsis
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Production credits
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ITV PRESS OFFICE
PRESS CONTACT:
Natasha Bayford - 0161 952 6209 / natasha.bayford@itv.com
PICTURE CONTACT:
Patrick Smith - 0207 157 3044 / patrick.smith@itv.com
Agatha Christie’s Marple: The Secret of Chimneys
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PRESS RELEASE
Julia McKenzie, returns as Agatha Christie’s famous spinster sleuth Miss Marple and is joined by a
glittering cast in The Secret of Chimneys.
The Secret of Chimneys stars Jonas Armstrong (Robin Hood, The Street), Michelle Collins
(Hotel Babylon, EastEnders), Stephen Dillane (Macbeth, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall),
Edward Fox (Oliver Twist, Day of the Jackal), Adam Godley (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Cor
Blimey!), Anthony Higgins (Judge John Deed), Mathew Horne (Gavin and Stacey, Horne and
Cordon), Ruth Jones (The Street, Gavin and Stacey), Dervla Kirwan (Law & Order: UK, Doctor
Who) and Charlotte Salt (Tudors, Beowulf).
A lavish weekend party sees Miss Marple accompany Lady Virginia Revel (Charlotte Salt) to her
family home of Chimneys, a house which was once prized for its diplomatic gatherings until a rare
diamond was stolen from the premises over twenty years ago.
Virginia must decide by the end of the weekend whether to accept a marriage proposal from the
tenacious career politician George Lomax (Adam Godley) or to follow her heart and the courtship of
another more adventurous suitor, Anthony Cade (Jonas Armstrong).
Throughout the course of the evening, a contract for the sale of the house is drawn up only for the
purchaser to be found dead in a secret passageway within its walls.
Chief Inspector Battle (Stephen Dillane) arrives from Scotland Yard to investigate, enlisting Miss
Marple’s help. When the bones of a long dead servant are uncovered, Miss Marple begins to realise
that the secret of Chimneys is darker than even she had realised.
The Secret of Chimneys has been adapted by Paul Rutman and directed by John Strickland.
Karen Thrussell produces both current Marple and Poirot series.
Renowned for her work with Stephen Sondheim, Julia has starred in The Philadelphia Story at the
Old Vic, and has achieved numerous awards, both on Broadway and in the West End. She won an
Olivier for her performance as Mrs Lovett in the National Theatre production of Sweeney Todd.
Julia has appeared in Cranford as Mrs Forrester and the critically acclaimed Notes on a Scandal.
Earlier credits include Fresh Fields, Bright Young Things and Blott on the Landscape.
Julia is the seventh actress to take on the much-loved character of Miss Marple on screen, following
in the footsteps of Geraldine McEwan, Gracie Fields, Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury, Helen
Hayes and Joan Hickson.
The Marple stories are co-produced by ITV Studios and Agatha Christie Ltd, a Chorion company,
and US network WGBH. Mammoth Screen’s Michele Buck and Damien Timmer executive produce
Marple on behalf of ITV Studios. Rebecca Eaton is Executive Producer for WGBH.
Christie remains the most popular novelist in history, with her work being published in 50 languages
in over 70 countries and more than two billion of her books sold to date. As well as the renowned
Poirot and Miss Marple series, Christie also wrote the detective series Tommy and Tuppence and a
wealth of other murder mysteries and thrillers between 1920 and 1976 including the bestselling And
Then There Were None and the record breaking play The Mousetrap.
LWT began broadcasting Agatha Christie's Poirot in 1989 and the BBC was previously the producer
of the Miss Marple dramas.
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CAST LIST
Miss Marple......................................................................................Julia McKenzie
Chief Inspector Battle ..................................................................... Stephen Dillane
Count Ludwig Von Stainach ...........................................................Anthony Higgins
Lady Virginia Revel ........................................................................... Charlotte Salt
Lady Bundle Revel ............................................................................ Dervla Kirwan
Lord Caterham ..................................................................................... Edward Fox
George Lomax ................................................................................... Adam Godley
Miss Blenkinsopp .................................................................................. Ruth Jones
Bill Eversleigh................................................................................... Mathew Horne
Anthony Cade ...............................................................................Jonas Armstrong
Tredwell .......................................................................................... Michelle Collins
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JULIA MCKENZIE IS MISS MARPLE
Approaching The Secret of Chimneys, Julia was
able to relax into the character following the positive
public response as the nation’s beloved Miss Marple.
“To put it mildly, I feel quite pleased with the way my
Marple has been received. I’m enjoying it immensely.
I think I was rather in shock in the first couple of films
because I did take over the role very quickly. I was
just so surprised to get the part, added to which was
the trepidation of taking over such an iconic role. I feel
now that I’m much more secure in the
characterisation.
“Obviously it was a bit worrying when the first few
films came out. I wasn’t sure how they would be
received and so it was quite nerve wracking. I did
send Geraldine McEwan some flowers saying
“thinking of you” because it’s hard to leave a part. And
it’s hard to take over from another actress. But now I
feel I’ve settled into it and would like to play her for the
rest of my working life if there are enough stories to
go round.”
“The Secret of Chimneys is a rather political drama. It felt rather different for a Marple really, as it
went into affairs of state. Again we had a brilliant cast including Edward Fox, Stephen Dillane and
Dervla Kirwan.”
Julia explains how her version of Jane Marple is taken from one of two interpretations of the
character by Agatha Christie herself...
“I’ve gone for the sturdier version as it were! Agatha Christie wrote Jane Marple in two different
ways. When she first invented the character she was a more fragile, rather Victorian soul. Then she
rewrote her about 10 years later and she came up a bit tweedier and more solid. I’ve really gone for
the latter one because of the modern audience. I think, for her age, Miss Marple is quite a modern
woman. She’s certainly got a tremendous intelligence and intellect that I have had to work hard at!
But, I’ve based most of her on the fact that she’s a woman who’s very much of her period but also
modern.
“One of the very sweet things a background artist said to me during filming one of the early films
was “I think you’re going to be very good in this Julia because you look like her”. And I just thought
that was a marvellous thing to say. I obviously fitted their image of Miss Marple and I hope that
people who are fans of Marple will accept my image too.”
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One thing Julia has found is that playing Miss Marple has been a learning curve...
“You do learn a lot of lessons along the way. I thought at first it wouldn’t be a good thing to have
new directors and writers on each film but, in fact, it’s been refreshing and you learn something new
from each one. I do feel when I get a script whether it suits my Marple and the writers are very good
at chatting through ideas with me. Most of the writers are awfully good at helping you develop your
own Marple. On The Pale Horse, the writer, Russell Lewis, looked at the previous films and decided
to write the script in very much my vocal patterns, which has been really interesting to do. Suddenly
you think, “Oh I see why they’ve written a line of dialogue in their way.
“And of course I get to work with lots of actors I’ve always admired, which is an absolute treat.
Certain people you work with raise your work. It’s like a game of tennis. And suddenly you become
a better player.”
On the subject of the stellar cast Agatha Christie’s Marple attracts, Julia couldn’t be more delighted
with the sea of faces which greet her at each read-through.
“The production team all seem a little bit reticent to tell me who’s going to be in each episode. I
think they like to see the look on my face when I walk into the first read-through. I’m absolutely...I
hate the word gob smacked but I’ll have to use it...about who wants to be in the films. We’ve had
such wonderful actors and it really is a treat for me to meet them all and to act with them. All the
people we’ve had in so far have been people I’d wanted to work with. I was quite overawed when
Stephen Dillane came to play one of the inspectors. I didn’t feel I could act for a couple of days I
was so overawed by him and the performances I’ve seen him give. But of course Sean Connery
wouldn’t be bad would it?! I’m not moving out of my trailer though! When we had Joan Collins
working with us on They Do It with Mirrors I said ‘well, she can’t have my trailer and I want bigger
shoulder pads!’
“I think people are more than delighted to come into a Poirot or a Marple because it’s a very
prestigious production. This is a very expensive production and the standard is very high, especially
in the writing, the photography and the direction. It’s all first class.”
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DERVLA KIRWAN IS LADY BUNDLE REVEL
“I play a character called Lady ‘Bundle’ Revel,
Virginia’s sister. Bundle desperately wants to hold
on to Chimneys. She’s very vivacious, quite
outrageous and speaks her mind. She probably
thinks she’s one of the boys rather than one of the
girls. She is a bit ahead of her time but is very
much caught up in the legacy of keeping the family
and the house going, at all costs.
“As a potential suspect, I won’t be giving any
meaningful glances because my job as an actress
is to forget that the audience is watching me.
When I’m a viewer, I like to think I’m a fly on the
wall. I’m just here to play my character as well as I
can and be truthful to the writing and the narrative
of the piece.
“I’ve always wanted to do a Marple. I was always a
very big fan of the previous films and now I really
like what Julia McKenzie is doing with her
interpretation of the character. I think she brings great warmth to the part. She’s got a natural innate
intelligence about her. And then you look down the cast list and think ‘Oh my God, I’m going to be
playing Edward Fox’s daughter’!! Then there are all these great actors I’ve seen on stage, like
Adam Godley. Plus Julia is just a really lovely person. What you see on screen is exactly what you
get off.
“I have a very young family and there are a lot of programmes on television that I wouldn’t
necessarily want them to watch at this stage. But I feel with a Marple we could sit down and watch
as a family. If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie, what’s not to like about Marple or Poirot? They’re
iconic intrinsic characters for television. I also like the costumes. I like being brought back into
another period, a time when things were easier and where an old lady could sit in the corner and
observe human nature.”
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SYNOPSIS
Miss Marple accompanies Lady Virginia Revel (Charlotte Salt) to a weekend party at her family
home of Chimneys, a house once prized for its diplomatic gatherings. That is until a priceless
diamond was stolen there over twenty years ago, which left polite society scandalised as a maid
had seemingly disappeared with the famous jewel. The tenacious career politician George Lomax
has persuaded Virginia’s father, Lord Caterham (Edward Fox), to host a gathering for an important
Austrian Count named Ludwig Von Stainach (Anthony Higgins).
Virginia, who is the daughter of Miss Marple’s late cousin, must decide by the end of the weekend
whether to accept George Lomax’s (Adam Godley) proposal of marriage or to follow her heart and
pursue the courtship of another more adventurous suitor, Anthony Cade (Jonas Armstrong), whom
she met recently by way of a fortunate accident.
Lomax is dismayed by the odd array of guests who have been invited and castigates his affable
assistant Bill Eversleigh (Mathew Horne), who has long harboured a soft spot for Virginia. Along
with Miss Marple, there is the socialist spinster Miss Blenkinsopp (Ruth Jones), Caterham’s
formidable and fiercely protective eldest daughter Bundle (Dervla Kirwan) and the quietly
inscrutable and long serving maidservant Treadwell (Michelle Collins).
Count Ludwig takes a personal interest in Chimneys and, after dinner, Caterham entertains
discussions about the sale of the house, much to his daughters’ dismay. A deal is drawn up but, in
the middle of the night, the house guests are stirred from their beds by security guards. The Count
is nowhere to be found. The sound of a gunshot is suddenly heard from a secret passageway in
the house. When the group investigate, Count Ludwig is found dead in the arms of Anthony Cade.
Why is Cade at Chimneys? Virginia is left heartbroken by Cade’s arrest yet protests he is innocent
– is her beloved suitor being framed for murder?
Chief Inspector Battle (Stephen Dillane) arrives from Scotland Yard to investigate, instantly finding
Miss Marple a key ally in a house full of suspicion and fear. Together they discover a coded
message in the pocket of the dead Count’s clothing which could unlock the mystery. The discovery
of a long standing affair between the Count and a mystery woman within Chimneys also ends in
tragedy. And when the bones of a young servant murdered over twenty years ago are uncovered,
Miss Marple begins to realise that the secret of Chimneys is darker than even she had realised...
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PRODUCTION CREDITS
Executive Producers .......................................................................... Michele Buck
....................................................................................................... Damien Timmer
............................................................................................................ Mary Durkun
Chairman Agatha Christie Ltd ....................................................... Mathew Prichard
Director ........................................................................................... John Strickland
Producer .........................................................................................Karen Thrussell
Writer .................................................................................................. Paul Rutman
Production Designer ............................................................................. Jeff Tessler
Line Producer ............................................................................. Matthew Hamilton
Costume Designer ........................................................................... Sheena Naiper
Casting Director ................................................................................. Susie Parriss
Art Directors ........................................................................................... Paul Gilpin
............................................................................................................ Miranda Cull
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