Joan Hickson

Joan Bogle Butler (5 August 1906 – 17 October 1998), known professionally as Joan Hickson, was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. She also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audiobooks.

Biography

Born in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, Hickson was a daughter of Edith Mary (née Bogle) and Alfred Harold Hickson, a shoe manufacturer. After boarding at Oldfield School in Swanage, Dorset, she went on to train at RADA in London.^[2] She made her stage debut in 1927, then worked for several years throughout the United Kingdom, achieving success playing comedic, often eccentric characters in the West End of London. She played the role of the cockney maid Ida in the original production of See How They Run at the Q Theatre in 1944, and then at the Comedy Theatre in January 1945.^[3]

Hickson made her first film appearance in 1934. The numerous supporting roles she played during her career included several in Carry On films, notably Sister in Carry On Nurse and Mrs May in Carry On Constable.

In the 1940s Hickson appeared on stage in Appointment with Death, a play by Agatha Christie, who wrote in a note to her, "I will call you to play my 'Miss Marple' one day, if I can find the time to write another play".^[4]

In 1961, Hickson played the housekeeper in the film Murder, She Said, based on Agatha Christie's novel 4.50 From Paddington and starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple. From 1963 to 1966 Hickson played Mrs Peace, housekeeper to the Reverend Stephen Young, played by Donald Sinden, in the highly rated TV series Our Man at St Mark's. From 1970 to 1971 she played Mrs Pugsley in Bachelor Father. She also played Mrs Chambers in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? In 1986 she played the part of Mrs Trellis in the film Clockwise. Also in 1986 she appeared in episode 2 of the drama series ScreenPlay.

Hickson's stage career included roles in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, the musical The Card (1975), adapted by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent from the novel by Arnold Bennett; and Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce, for which she won a 1979 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and had been nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance in 1977. In 1980 she appeared as Mrs Rivington in Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, yet another production based on a novel by Agatha Christie.

The BBC began filming the works of Agatha Christie in the mid-1980s and set out to remain faithful to the plotlines and locales of Christie's stories, as well as to represent Miss Marple as written. Hickson played the role of Miss Marple in all 12 adaptations, which were produced from 1984 to 1992; she received two BAFTA nominations for Best TV Actress, in 1987 and 1988. When the OBE was bestowed on Hickson in June 1987^[5] Queen Elizabeth II was reported to have said, "You play the part just as one envisages it."^[6] When Hickson retired from the role, believing that she should stop while the programme was still at the peak of its popularity, she stated that she had no intention of retiring from acting altogether.^[7]

Personal life

From 1958, Hickson lived at 2 Rose Lane, Wivenhoe, along the River Colne 43 miles (69 kilometres) from London in Essex, for 40 years until her death in 1998. A plaque now marks the house in which she lived.^[8]

Hickson married Dr Eric Norman Butler (born 2 September 1902 in Westbury, Wiltshire), a physician, at Hampstead Parish Church, Hampstead, north-west London, on 29 October 1932. They had two children.^[9] Her husband died in Colchester, Essex, in June 1967.^[10]

Death

Hickson died of a stroke at Colchester General Hospital in 1998, aged 92.^[11][12] She was interred at Sidbury Cemetery in Devon.

The Miss Marple series (BBC)

Series 1

• The Body in the Library (1984)
• The Moving Finger (1985)
• A Murder Is Announced (1985)
• A Pocket Full of Rye (1985)

Series 2

• The Murder at the Vicarage (1986) – BAFTA nomination
• Sleeping Murder (1987)
• At Bertram's Hotel (1987)
• Nemesis (1987) – BAFTA nomination

Stand-alone feature length episodes

• 4.50 from Paddington (1987)
• A Caribbean Mystery (1989)
• They Do It With Mirrors (1991)
• The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1992)

Partial filmography

Partial television credits

References

1. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. United Kingdom: ONS. Archived 14 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
2. ^ "Joan Hickson – RADA". www.rada.ac.uk. Archived 28 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
3. ^ "Hickson [married name Butler], Joan Bogle (1906–1998), actress : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – oi". 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/71118. Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
4. ^ J.C. Bernthal, Agatha Christie: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, ISBN 978-1-4766-7620-3, p. 64
5. ^ No. 50948. 12 June 1987. p. 9.
6. ^ Deacon, Michael (22 September 2007). "Checking in to murder". The Telegraph. Archived 11 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
7. ^ Alexandra Younger and Tom Vallance. "Obituary: Joan Hickson | Culture". The Independent. Archived 12 July 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
8. ^ Essex – December 2016, retrieved 2 February 2017
9. ^ England & Wales, Birth Index 1916–2005
10. ^ England & Wales, Death Index, 1967
11. ^ "Miss Marple actress dies at 92". BBC. 18 October 1998. Archived 12 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
12. ^ Lyall, Sarah (20 October 1998). "Joan Hickson, Miss Marple on TV, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Archived 9 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 9 September 2010.

External links

• Joan Hickson at IMDb
• Performances by Joan Hickson in the Archive of the University of Bristol
• Joan Hickson OBE (1906–1998) at The Wivenhoe Encyclopedia