Julia McKenzie is ITV's new Miss Marple. McKenzie is 66 and played Mrs Forrester in the BBC costume drama Cranford as Mrs Forrester. She replaces Geraldine McEwan in the role.

Geraldine McEwan announced her retirement from the role of Miss Marple today.

McEwan has played Agatha Christie's Jane Marple since ITV1 brought her back in 2003 and starred in twelve TV films.

Ordeal By Innocence is an Agatha Christie novel but Miss Marple doesn't get a mention from the first page to the last.

The first of four episodes from series three of Miss Marple starring Geraldine McEwan premières on ITV1 on Sunday evening.

I always thought that Joan Hickson played the best Miss Marple on television.....I believe Agatha Christie thought the same.....the gentile way she went about things, with her head to one side, taking everything in......until eventually she reveals who did it and why.

Geraldine McEwan returns to ITV1 as Jane Marple on 30th April in The Sittaford Mystery.

This is based on an Agatha Christie novel in which Miss Marple did not feature. ITV has bought the TV rights of all the Agatha Christie novels and is including Miss Marple in several of them to increase the number of viewers.

A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY

AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL

THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY

4.50 FROM PADDINGTON

THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE

THE MOVING FINGER

THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE

Geraldine McEwan stars as the new Miss Marple in four ITV1 films. Under the title of Agatha Christie's Marple the series was screened on Sundays in the UK.

Elliot Gould appeared in the second series of Miss Marple recorded in 2005.

Geraldine McEwan was back for series two in 2006.

Sleeping Murder

Russ Abbot, an old-school comedian, was brought out of retirement for his first TV appearance in four years, playing a local detective, Inspector Primer. Sleeping Murder was filmed on location in Devon in July 2005.