Geraldine McEwan in Miss Marple - Nemesis

Geraldine McEwan was back for her final outing as Miss Marple on ITV1 on New Year's Day 2009.

This is not the first time that movie or TV executives thought they could improve on the originals by camping them up and it presumably won't be the last. But after several McEwan episodes ITV may have finally figured out why it all went wrong. Geraldine McEwan will in future be replaced by Julia McKenzie. Let's hope some new scriptwriters can be found as well.

Stephen Churchett was wheeled out to write this chaotic episode. In just four years the McEwan versions of Miss Marple have bombed. Her first outing in December 2004 was seen by 8 million viewers. Nemesis was an appropriate title for the final McEwan effort which was seen by only 3.9 million.

The original story was changed in this adaptation and plenty of room was found in the cast for ITV luvvies who don't get many phone calls from ITV these days that don't involve going to Australia in November.

It was difficult to pick out the most excruciatingly bad performance but Will Mellor was certainly a candidate. He still can't act, had lines drawn on his face and pretended to limp.

Miss Marple - Geraldine McEwan
Verity Hunt/Margaret Lumley - Laura Michelle Kelly
Michael Faber - Dan Stevens
Matthew Broadribb - Graeme Garden
Raymond West - Richard E Grant
Georgina Barrow - Ruth Wilson
Sydney Lumley - Johnny Briggs
Laurence Raeburn - George Cole
Amanda Dalrymple - Ronni Ancona
Derek Turnbull - Adrian Rawlins
Rowena Waddy - Emily Woof
Martin Waddy - Will Mellor
Sister Agnes - Anne Reid
Sister Clotilde - Amanda Burton
DC Colin Hands - Lee Ingleby
Waitress - Heidi Monsen