Miss Marple's Side-kick

Tommy_A_Jones

If Agatha Christie had given Miss Marple a Permanent or Occasional Side-Kick who should it have Been? Dolly? Miss Dane Calthorp? Cherry, Bunch? Grizelda or Lucy? If she had been in Death On The Nile I would have liked to see Dolly Accompany her or Cherry and maybe Evil Under The Sun too.

tudes

I think it would be Dolly. She and Miss Marple are great together.

Tommy_A_Jones

Yes, they are.

tudes

Dolly is smart and could have good hunches. Besides, she's talkative (at least, I think) and could get a lot of information.

Tommy_A_Jones

I agree Tudes

HerculeAndAchille

I saw Lucy as a one-time Watson - I would have liked to see more of Elspeth McGillicuddy, though, who sounds a very interesting and memorable character - at least, from her descripition in 4.50 from Paddington.

taliavishay-arbel

I vote for Dolly. While Lucy is clever and active, Dolly is more of a companion to Miss Marple, and sets her off - even their differences are interesting - MM much more clear-headed, but Dolly supplying common sense and knowledge of the people involved.

PoirotBabosaGalaxy

HerculeAndAchille said:

I saw Lucy as a one-time Watson - I would have liked to see more of Elspeth McGillicuddy, though, who sounds a very interesting and memorable character - at least, from her descripition in 4.50 from Paddington.

Yes! Mrs. McGillicuddy, the reliable sidekick. 

Tommy_A_Jones

It could only be EITHER Dolly or Elspeth in a Friend capacity OR Cherry in the same way Bunter is Lord Peter Wimsey's Side-kick as a Servent. IMHO

taliavishay-arbel

It's interesting that MM doesn't have a permanent side-kick - she is part of a community, unlike Poirot, so she has various helpers. However, I would have liked to see more of Dolly, Cherry and Lucy. Dolly has a lot of human understanding, Cherry could supply more information about the "development" people (maybe have a murder occur in the development, where MM is a little out of her depth and Cherry helps). As for Lucy - she is my favourite MM helper, but since it is fairly obvious at the end of 4.50 that she is going to marry Brian Eastley, she would be pretty much out of MM's sphere. 

Tommy_A_Jones

No, she's going to marry Cedric but she will still be out of Miss Marple's sphere, Bunch makes a good Side-kick in A Murder Is Announced and The Rev is in Murder At The Vicarage but it didn't need Miss Marple The Rev should have been sleuth with either The Doc or Melchett as side-kick.

taliavishay-arbel

Tommy, what makes you think she is going to marry Cedric? In the book it is not spelled out, but the book ends with Miss Marple indicating that she knows. Since Lucy came to MM, depressed, and finally told her the reason - that she realized Brian was on the fatal train - I feel at that point she was in love with him. (By the way, the movies all give her different endings, only one of them with Brian and none with Cedric)

Tommy_A_Jones

Brian is too much of a Push over for Lucy whereas Cedric needs taming but he has his own lifestyle which will fit Lucy's independent desire to be a Perepetetic help, a one-woman Employment agency, Brian would want her to give up work to look after his son which wouldn't suit Lucy at all.

Dr.Sheppard

It is definitely not going to be Cedrick. He is described as a 'bohemian painter and lover of women'. Lucy would want the man she loves to love only her in return, not share him with anyone else. I'm sure we could find another character for Lucy within the novels.

Dr.Sheppard

The ideal side-kick for Miss Marple must be Raymond West. As we know he helped Miss Marple quite successfully in a number of novels, albeit very superficially in some of them. However, he can drive the pair to locations and he has funds to pay for their exploits and most important of all, they get along together.

taliavishay-arbel

This discussion is getting really interesting! First, as to the "who Lucy will marry" - Brian doesn't need Lucy to take care of his son - the son goes to boarding school (That's where he met Martine's son). @Tommy, you have a point about Brian being rather tame, But I think go-getter Lucy might get along well with him - she would manage him without his feeling she was running him, and with her advice he could do well. (MM mentions a man whom he resembles, who made wrong decisions and unfortunatly didn't listen to his wife's advice - but Lucy has shown her tact in managing people). My feeling is that Cedric isn't interested in marrying Lucy (remember, he is the only male of the family that doesn't make her any kind of proposal) and I doubt he could stand her tidiness, or she his untidiness.

About Raymond as a sidekick - in the books he doesn't quite fit the role - he is opinionated, patronizing and totally without human insight. Interestingly enough, in the Joan Hickson version of "Nemesis", he is MM's side-kick. After being thrown out of the house by his wife he moves in with MM, and when she goes on the quest he comes along as her companion. The penultimate scene where he finds Michael Rafiel is one of the most moving moments in the whole series.

Tommy_A_Jones

Ideally Lucy should end up with Craddock and that would have meant they could have a Duo Detective set up, I don't think Raymond should be a side-kick for Miss Marple, as he is too Patronizing and Opinionated.

taliavishay-arbel

@Tommy_A_Jones, I agree about Raymond. I made a mistake above - the nephew in the movie version of "Nemesis" is called Lionel, he is not Raymond but an introduced character. As for Lucy - Again, in the new version she does end up with Craddock - so the scriptwriter agreed with you. My feeling is that a strong, efficient woman like Lucy (especially at a time that independent women were not so accepted) might well prefer an amiable, not dominant man, so that she could keep her independence. The Craddock of the books seems like a good guy, but there is no hint of a romance between them. Maybe there should have been - then AC could have written a Dermott-Lucy book!

Tommy_A_Jones

Yes maybe there should have been, I liked Lawrence in The BBCs Nemesis, he wuld have been a good Side-kick.

Luke

I'm not sure to be honest, Dolly is the most likely I think

Mohan

I always thought Lucy was a bit too good to be true.  While she was entertaining as a character I like to think that Christie herself thought that the ultra-efficient paragon of housekeeping Lucy wasn't really ''safe'' as a recurring character or as a side-kick.  Getting married to Brian or Cedric wouldn't have mattered had Christie really wanted Lucy to make a comeback.  The fact is that she, Lucy, didn't which sort of shows what Christie really thought of the former!

Tommy_A_Jones

I would have liked to see Lucy branch out on her own with stories where she is the sleuth like Battle does or just as a main Character like Ariadne in Pale Horse but after a while it would be a bit repetitive after a while, she goes to be Housekeeper somewhere and ends up solving a Crime but it would be good for a few books.