Geraldine McEwan Quotes

I thought I was the wrong shape: that Miss Marple would be much fluffier than me, much more wearing shawls and things. But I was persuaded, and now, well - I can only do it my way.

I read a lot of 'Nancy Drew' books as a kid and considered myself a bit of an amateur detective.

I play a detective, very close to myself actually.

When I first started out, I absolutely begged my agent to get me a Poirot audition, and my wish came true - I did a Poirot! I need to do a Marple to round it off.

I've always loved mysteries, the something there that you didn't know, and with 'Case Histories' I just decide to make that more up-front.

I think there's part of me that's longing to play a Sherlock Holmes or sort of a House character, like a real detective. Like a real, moody detective. Like a real, sarcastic, mentally ill detective. I think it would be really fun to do something like that.

I'd always wanted to write crime fiction. I loved Nancy Drew.

When I was a kid, what captivated me about detective fiction were the puzzles more than the detectives or their enemies. And as I've gotten older, I see a lot of merit in setting your investigative sights higher than figuring out how someone stole Encyclopedia Brown's bicycle.

When I was asked to play 'Miss Marple,' I was given the Kevin Elyot script for 'The Body in the Library.' I was a fan of his theatre work anyway, and I just thought it was brilliant. I was immediately taken by 'Miss Marple,' so I read some of the novels, and I knew I had to do it.

We've always been fans of a good mystery; we think all kids are, and there weren't any good mysteries out there these days for kids, so that's why we decided to do them.

I often keep my eyes open for bodies. I do. Ever since I was a kid. I think I read too many 'Nancy Drew' books.

I've always been a secret locked-room fanatic. I read my first one when I was about ten or 11, Agatha Christie's 'Murder on the Orient Express,' with David Niven and Peter Ustinov on the cover.

People are confusing me with a good actor when I'm just a good mimic. When someone asks me to play a nun from the fifteenth century, you'll see what I mean.

I feel like an old lady; my hero is Miss Marple.

I read all the Agatha Christies when I was younger and like Sherlock Holmes. Crime fiction has always fascinated me, but I'll read anything anyone gives me.

I was obsessed with Nancy Drew growing up - I couldn't get enough.

I'm lucky that people believe me when I'm in character.

Agatha Christie's writing is incredibly skillful because her books are incredibly intellectually puzzling and challenging.

I still don't think I've ever read a Nancy Drew book; I probably read three or four 'Hardy Boys' books when I was 10, 11, 12, and I didn't love them at the time. Even then, they felt dated to me, like the word chum - 'my chum and I.' However, the 'Encyclopedia Brown' books, I read all of them.

I know nothing about mysteries. I don't take to them.

Doing an accent removes you from yourself and reminds you, every instant, that you're playing a part.

Midsomer' is a throwback to the old detective tradition, in which everything happens in the head of one man. Everything depends on his intuition and experience.

I've been in an Agatha Christie called 'The Sittaford Mystery,' which I enjoyed, but 'The Pale Horse' has a real sense of intrigue and the jigsaw pieces fitting together.

I decided to read something I normally hate: a cosy mystery. You know one of those mysteries where everything is tidily wrapped up at the end and everyone lives happily ever after? An Agatha Christie kind of mystery. They are so not my thing. But then someone was raving about Barbara Neely's Blanche White books and they sounded interesting.

How different from the cosy world of Rüya's detective novels, where authors never vexed a hero with more signs than he needed.