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BBC Radio 4 Marple
Sleeping Murder
Despite her best efforts, Gwenda is unable to modernize her new home. Worse still, she feels an irrational fear every time she climbs the stairs. With Miss Marple helping to exorcise the ghosts, the two women uncover a crime committed years ago. June Whitfield is Miss Marple in this full-cast Agatha Christie radio drama.
This adaptation was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 - 8 December 2001.
This adaptation was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 - 8 December 2001.
2 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2001
50 people want to read
About the author
Michael Bakewell
72 books6 followersMichael Bakewell (7 June 1931 – 11 July 2023) was a British radio and television producer and radio playwright.
His work included adapting The Lord of the Rings (with Brian Sibley) into a 1981 radio series for the BBC and a series of 27 adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories broadcast between 1985 and 2007 by BBC Radio 4.
He was born in Birmingham, England. After graduating from Cambridge in 1954, he was recruited by the BBC's Third Programme. He became the first Head of Plays at the BBC in the 1960s.
His work included adapting The Lord of the Rings (with Brian Sibley) into a 1981 radio series for the BBC and a series of 27 adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories broadcast between 1985 and 2007 by BBC Radio 4.
He was born in Birmingham, England. After graduating from Cambridge in 1954, he was recruited by the BBC's Third Programme. He became the first Head of Plays at the BBC in the 1960s.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 28, 2013
*rating: 4.5 stars*
Originally reviewed at:
Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder was the very first radio drama I’ve ever listened to but it definitely won’t be the last. I’m still quite new to audiobooks and even though I see why they’re so practical and why so many people love them, I’m still not entirely sure I could ever get used to them or listen to them on a daily basis. Radio dramas, however, are right up my street.
If you’ve ever tried audiobooks or at least listened to an audiobook sample before then you’ll understand my problem. Namely that regular, unabridged audiobooks can be… well, they can be a bit dull, can’t they? A good narrator makes them a lot enjoyable but still, one person reading the lines of a dozen different characters gets a little monotone after a while. Well, this was not the case here.
A few minutes after starting the tape I realized something. Do you know what radio dramas remind me of? Going to the theatre or the cinema without all the fuss of actually getting there or having to worry about not being late or finding your seat. It lets you listen to a complete performance with at least half a dozen different characters from the comfort of your own home. And if that wasn’t good enough, I love the fact that it’s not just a bunch of actors reading out their lines either. There’s music and all sorts of sound effects which make it easier for you to imagine what the setting’s like or what the characters are doing at that particular time. It’s almost like watching a film without actually seeing it, if that makes any sense. For example, when Gwenda and Miss Marple bump into each other in town during a heavy rainstorm, you can actually hear the rain pouring down and how they must have been in a hurry to find a shelter from the rain. When Gwenda and her fiancé arrive at someone’s house and are about to get out of the car, you can hear the brakes and the car keys turning. When someone’s walking down the stairs, you can literally hear their steps and the stairs creaking. It’s just brilliant. And it’s very, very far from being dull.
Although I’m a big fan of Christie’s novels, Sleeping Murder is one I haven’t had the chance of reading before. If you’re in the same boat as me and don’t know whether to listen to such a short (90 minutes) version without reading the book first or not, you needn’t worry: I wasn’t familiar with the story either and it didn’t matter. I don’t know how many things are left out of this recording (as opposed to the original plot) but I know I didn’t feel as if we were missing something. All the clues are there and it’s all neatly wrapped up in the end.
As for the plot itself, I did manage to figure out who the murderer was but I enjoyed the story all the same. I wasn’t really keen on Gwenda’s voice and her accent but Miss Marple’s character and June Whitfield’s (who’s perfect for this role) performance definitely makes up for it. It’s a perfect recording for a rainy afternoon spent indoors with a mug of tea and a warm blanket and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Originally reviewed at:
Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder was the very first radio drama I’ve ever listened to but it definitely won’t be the last. I’m still quite new to audiobooks and even though I see why they’re so practical and why so many people love them, I’m still not entirely sure I could ever get used to them or listen to them on a daily basis. Radio dramas, however, are right up my street.
If you’ve ever tried audiobooks or at least listened to an audiobook sample before then you’ll understand my problem. Namely that regular, unabridged audiobooks can be… well, they can be a bit dull, can’t they? A good narrator makes them a lot enjoyable but still, one person reading the lines of a dozen different characters gets a little monotone after a while. Well, this was not the case here.
A few minutes after starting the tape I realized something. Do you know what radio dramas remind me of? Going to the theatre or the cinema without all the fuss of actually getting there or having to worry about not being late or finding your seat. It lets you listen to a complete performance with at least half a dozen different characters from the comfort of your own home. And if that wasn’t good enough, I love the fact that it’s not just a bunch of actors reading out their lines either. There’s music and all sorts of sound effects which make it easier for you to imagine what the setting’s like or what the characters are doing at that particular time. It’s almost like watching a film without actually seeing it, if that makes any sense. For example, when Gwenda and Miss Marple bump into each other in town during a heavy rainstorm, you can actually hear the rain pouring down and how they must have been in a hurry to find a shelter from the rain. When Gwenda and her fiancé arrive at someone’s house and are about to get out of the car, you can hear the brakes and the car keys turning. When someone’s walking down the stairs, you can literally hear their steps and the stairs creaking. It’s just brilliant. And it’s very, very far from being dull.
Although I’m a big fan of Christie’s novels, Sleeping Murder is one I haven’t had the chance of reading before. If you’re in the same boat as me and don’t know whether to listen to such a short (90 minutes) version without reading the book first or not, you needn’t worry: I wasn’t familiar with the story either and it didn’t matter. I don’t know how many things are left out of this recording (as opposed to the original plot) but I know I didn’t feel as if we were missing something. All the clues are there and it’s all neatly wrapped up in the end.
As for the plot itself, I did manage to figure out who the murderer was but I enjoyed the story all the same. I wasn’t really keen on Gwenda’s voice and her accent but Miss Marple’s character and June Whitfield’s (who’s perfect for this role) performance definitely makes up for it. It’s a perfect recording for a rainy afternoon spent indoors with a mug of tea and a warm blanket and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
January 30, 2023
Fantastic narration of a creative Miss Marple story full of excitement 😀 The solving of an 18 year old disappearance/murder and a whole lot of weeding!
April 22, 2021
In this short Miss Marple mystery, a young couple purchased a home. It invokes a memory in the young woman of a strangled woman named Helen. After meeting Miss Marple who encourages the woman to write to someone who may know if she'd ever lived in England, she finds the woman she saw was probably her stepmother. However, no one ever suspected the woman dead. The story told at the time was the woman ran off. Untangling eighteen years of lies, the couple, with the help of Miss Marple, find the truth. I knew from the moment we first met the guilty party who it was, but it was still a fun romp with Miss Marple via a Full Cast BBC production audiobook. (3.5 stars)
April 26, 2020
Book #4 in the Knit Wit & Happy Hooker book club.
February 1, 2024
I gleefully just discovered this series of BBC dramatizations. It is the perfect way to round out a Christie reading experience. This is my first listen but I suspect that I will exhaust the collection as I work my way through the Christie canon. My only critique of this episode is that the whodunnit piece was fairly obvious. There were missed opportunities to craft red herrings and alternative suspects.
June 29, 2022
I just loved listening to this BBC full cast dramatization! I was really caught up in this short story!
July 4, 2022
These radio dramas are so much fun to listen to!
May 11, 2023
I really enjoyed listening to this BBC full-cast dramatisation. I’m working my way through as many of these Agatha Christie mysteries as I can find. They are so much better than audio books.
September 4, 2025
from papa dudut to agatha christie radio dramas… SIGN ME UP FOR MOREEE
October 16, 2025
a classic
October 26, 2025
Agatha Christie, always good fun, I guessed the murderer so very pleased with myself 🥰
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July 13, 2012Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case, by Agatha Christie, a-minus, Narrated by Stephanie Cole, Produced by Harper Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
Gwenda and her new husband, Giles, were moving to England from New Zealand. Gwenda came first to find a house. She found one that seemed perfect to her. The only trouble was that she kept having irrational feelings about the house-a feeling of terror one day as she was on the stairs, a feeling that the dining room should lead right into the drawing room but there was no longer a door between the two rooms, etc. As time goes on, she starts to think she’s going crazy, particularly when one of her visions on the staircase is of looking through the railing and seeing a woman dead on the floor, and knowing, despite her young age, that the woman was strangled and that her name was Helen. Then she meets Miss Marple. She tells Miss Marple about her feelings, and Miss Marple believes that the feelings are not irrational or supernatural, but that Gwenda has lived in the house earlier in her life. She finds out that this is true, and that her step-mother, whose name was Helen, disappeared from that house, seemingly leaving her father for another man. But what happened to her step-mother? If she is still alive, why hasn’t she contacted anyone? If she’s not alive, did she ever leave her husband’s house? And if she didn’t, where is her body buried? Gwenda, her husband,Giles, and Miss Marple work together to solve the crime. The danger increases substantially as they get closer to the truth. I had not read this mystery although I have read many of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I love the kind of mystery where you have to analyze particular things to come up with the truth, so different than the thrillers and espionage and serial killer mysteries that flood so much of the market today. Stephanie Cole was a great narrator for Miss Marple. In reclaiming some of those old mysteries I have to be careful because, unfortunately, several of the Miss Marples are narrated by Joan Hickson, who played Miss Marple on PBS, and I hate her interpretation of the character. But this one was excellent.
Gwenda and her new husband, Giles, were moving to England from New Zealand. Gwenda came first to find a house. She found one that seemed perfect to her. The only trouble was that she kept having irrational feelings about the house-a feeling of terror one day as she was on the stairs, a feeling that the dining room should lead right into the drawing room but there was no longer a door between the two rooms, etc. As time goes on, she starts to think she’s going crazy, particularly when one of her visions on the staircase is of looking through the railing and seeing a woman dead on the floor, and knowing, despite her young age, that the woman was strangled and that her name was Helen. Then she meets Miss Marple. She tells Miss Marple about her feelings, and Miss Marple believes that the feelings are not irrational or supernatural, but that Gwenda has lived in the house earlier in her life. She finds out that this is true, and that her step-mother, whose name was Helen, disappeared from that house, seemingly leaving her father for another man. But what happened to her step-mother? If she is still alive, why hasn’t she contacted anyone? If she’s not alive, did she ever leave her husband’s house? And if she didn’t, where is her body buried? Gwenda, her husband,Giles, and Miss Marple work together to solve the crime. The danger increases substantially as they get closer to the truth. I had not read this mystery although I have read many of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I love the kind of mystery where you have to analyze particular things to come up with the truth, so different than the thrillers and espionage and serial killer mysteries that flood so much of the market today. Stephanie Cole was a great narrator for Miss Marple. In reclaiming some of those old mysteries I have to be careful because, unfortunately, several of the Miss Marples are narrated by Joan Hickson, who played Miss Marple on PBS, and I hate her interpretation of the character. But this one was excellent.
September 18, 2012
Nach einem längeren Aufenthalt in Neuseeland, kehrt die frisch vermählte Gwenda Reed mit ihrem Gatten nach England, in ihre Heimat zurück. Auf der Suche nach einem Haus verliebt sie sich sofort in eines, in der Gegend, in der sie als Kind einmal gelebt hat, bevor sie nach dem Tod ihrer Eltern zu Verwanden nach Neuseeland kam.
Irgendwas an dem Haus ist jedoch seltsam. Sie läuft immer wieder gegen eine Wand, von der sie überzeugt ist, dass da eine Tür sein müsste, sie weiß, welche Tapeten sich vor vielen Jahren an den Wänden befanden, noch bevor diese bei der Renovierung zu Tage treten. Sie erzählt dies Miss Maples Neffe Raymond West, der es seiner Tante erzählt, deren Interesse sofort geweckt ist, zumal Gwenda sich bei einem Kriminaltheaterstück übermäßig erschreckt. Gwenda muss als Kind einmal in diesem Haus gelebt haben und etwas schreckliches gesehen haben. Ist ihre Stiefmutter nicht abgehauen, sondern wurde sie vielleicht ermordet? Hat Gwenda als Kind diesen Mord beobachtet? Gibt es nach so vielen Jahren überhaupt noch Zeugen?
Dieser Fall erinnert ein wenig an Poirots „Elephants can remember“. Erneut ein sehr alter Fall dessen Spuren erkaltet und vergessen sind. Es gibt nur noch wenige Zeugen, die sich vielleicht noch an damals erinnern und Hinweise geben könnten, was wirklich passiert ist. Dazu noch ein paar Zufälle, ein wirklich praktisches Erinnern nach so vielen Jahren und eine dumme Überreaktion des Täters, die ihn somit verrät.
Andererseits, werden dem Zuhörer keine Fakten verschwiegen, jeder kann sehr gut miträtseln und hat die Chance, selber auf die Lösung zu kommen, bis der Täter sich outet, das ist wirklich sehr gut gemacht.
Erneut spricht June Whitfield Miss Maple und auch die restliche Crew ist außerordentlich gut, BBC eben. Die Soundkulisse ist sparsam aber stimmig. Eine perfekte Kombination aus sehr gut ermitteltem Kriminalfall und sehr gut produziertem Hörspiel.
Irgendwas an dem Haus ist jedoch seltsam. Sie läuft immer wieder gegen eine Wand, von der sie überzeugt ist, dass da eine Tür sein müsste, sie weiß, welche Tapeten sich vor vielen Jahren an den Wänden befanden, noch bevor diese bei der Renovierung zu Tage treten. Sie erzählt dies Miss Maples Neffe Raymond West, der es seiner Tante erzählt, deren Interesse sofort geweckt ist, zumal Gwenda sich bei einem Kriminaltheaterstück übermäßig erschreckt. Gwenda muss als Kind einmal in diesem Haus gelebt haben und etwas schreckliches gesehen haben. Ist ihre Stiefmutter nicht abgehauen, sondern wurde sie vielleicht ermordet? Hat Gwenda als Kind diesen Mord beobachtet? Gibt es nach so vielen Jahren überhaupt noch Zeugen?
Dieser Fall erinnert ein wenig an Poirots „Elephants can remember“. Erneut ein sehr alter Fall dessen Spuren erkaltet und vergessen sind. Es gibt nur noch wenige Zeugen, die sich vielleicht noch an damals erinnern und Hinweise geben könnten, was wirklich passiert ist. Dazu noch ein paar Zufälle, ein wirklich praktisches Erinnern nach so vielen Jahren und eine dumme Überreaktion des Täters, die ihn somit verrät.
Andererseits, werden dem Zuhörer keine Fakten verschwiegen, jeder kann sehr gut miträtseln und hat die Chance, selber auf die Lösung zu kommen, bis der Täter sich outet, das ist wirklich sehr gut gemacht.
Erneut spricht June Whitfield Miss Maple und auch die restliche Crew ist außerordentlich gut, BBC eben. Die Soundkulisse ist sparsam aber stimmig. Eine perfekte Kombination aus sehr gut ermitteltem Kriminalfall und sehr gut produziertem Hörspiel.
March 21, 2021
The BBC dramatization of Dame Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder was the perfect accompaniment for my activities today. This particular audiobook, staring the delightful June Whitfield as Miss Marple, opens with an extraordinary case of déjà vu on behalf of a Mrs. Gwenda Reed of New Zealand who comes to the English village of Dilmouth to find a home ahead of her husband.
She instantly decides upon a lovely home that would soon prove to be the key to unlocking a dark memory from her very early childhood; turning things upside down after 18 years of silence. The highly astute and eminently suspicious Miss Marple deftly connects fleeting comments and what is not said together to help solve that universal question of mystery novels “Whodunit?”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
She instantly decides upon a lovely home that would soon prove to be the key to unlocking a dark memory from her very early childhood; turning things upside down after 18 years of silence. The highly astute and eminently suspicious Miss Marple deftly connects fleeting comments and what is not said together to help solve that universal question of mystery novels “Whodunit?”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 23, 2019
Miss Marple is more of a secondary character in this adaptation. She tries to tell Gwenda and Giles that they shouldn't believe everything they are told, and of course is proven right. Luckily she is around to protect Gwenda when most needed!
I thought I didn't like Miss Marple books but this was decent enough. Maybe I just didn't like the Miss Marple reader in other books (non-adaptations)? Or maybe I prefer when she is more behind the scenes so her annoying elements are less noticeable?
I thought I didn't like Miss Marple books but this was decent enough. Maybe I just didn't like the Miss Marple reader in other books (non-adaptations)? Or maybe I prefer when she is more behind the scenes so her annoying elements are less noticeable?
February 22, 2021
My first Miss Marple! I liked the spooky, almost supernatural start and the voice cast were all excellent. I thought the denouement was a bit obvious, though, and the motive was weak. Still, I loved seeing Miss Marple in action - I don't know if this is a typical Marple, but the other characters seemed completely oblivious to her pulling the strings. Apart from the one reference dropping police inspector. I liked him!
November 2, 2015
Agatha Christie :)
October 1, 2015
Great, thrilling mystory.
July 20, 2016
The final Miss Marple mystery is dramatized for the radio. A good adaptation that captures the essence of the novel.
December 11, 2017
I listened to this dramatization in one sitting. It was very quick and had a surprise ending. I enjoyed it.
October 29, 2018
Abridged, full-cast. Don't like the full-cast experience and really want to listen to the unabridged version.
August 28, 2018
5 ☆ *Audiobook*
Marvellous voice acting.
Incredible murder-mistery, keeps you on your toes till the very end!!
Marvellous voice acting.
Incredible murder-mistery, keeps you on your toes till the very end!!
May 7, 2019
I really liked the gentleness of Miss Marple's detective methods, even when the murderer is so brutal and malevolent.
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January 8, 2020I re-read this book to complete task #9 of the 2020 BookRiot Read Harder Challenge: Read the LAST book in a series. It would also satisfy task #10: Read a book that takes place in a rural setting.
June 27, 2020
June Whitfield played Miss Marple and did a stellar job. Enjoyed this BBC production very much!
January 11, 2021
Just a good old fashioned mystery, well adapted, true to the time, and well performed. I liked the story and the setting. Recommend!
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews