Christie's twelve novels featuring Miss Marple were all adapted for the series.
The Murder at the Vicarage,
The Body in the Library,
4.50 from Paddington, and
A Murder is Announced in Series 1,
Sleeping Murder and
The Moving Finger in Series 2, ''
At Bertram's Hotel and Nemesis in Series 3, A Pocket Full of Rye and They Do It with Mirrors in Series 4, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side in Series 5 and A Caribbean Mystery'' in Series 6. In addition, several short stories featuring
Miss Marple were adapted into full-length episodes across the series.
The Blue Geranium in Series 5, elements of
The Herb of Death were incorporated into the adaptation of
The Secret of Chimneys in Series 5, while ''
Greenshaw's Folly and The Thumb Mark of St. Peter'' were combined into one story for Series 6. Across the twenty-three adaptations, many changes have been made from the source material. •
The Body in the Library inserts a lesbian affair and changes the identity of one of the killers. •
The Murder at the Vicarage removes or changes some minor characters and manufactures Miss Marple's early life. •
4.50 from Paddington removes one character's death and simplifies the killer's motive. •
A Murder Is Announced changes some of the characters and inserts a lesbian relationship. •
Sleeping Murder changes the killer's motive, some characters backstory, inserts a central romantic relationship, and sideplot involving a travelling band of singers. •
The Moving Finger changes the time period and some character backstory, including the addition of a suicide attempt by the narrating character and two other characters in a gay relationship. •
By the Pricking of My Thumbs inserts Miss Marple into what was originally a Tommy and Tuppence novel, and therefore changes many plot elements, including Tommy and Tuppence's relationship, adding characters, subplots, and changing the time period. •
The Sittaford Mystery is very loosely based on the novel, but inserts Miss Marple and changes the identity of the killer. • ''
At Bertram's Hotel'' is only loosely based on the novel, changing many elements of the plot, characters and time period. •
Ordeal by Innocence includes significant changes to the characters, inserting Miss Marple into the story. •
Towards Zero is largely faithful to the original novel but inserts Miss Marple into the story and changes some characters. •
Nemesis is only loosely based on the novel, and changes characters and setting. •
A Pocket Full of Rye is a faithful adaptation of the novel, with only minor changes to the characters. •
Murder Is Easy is very loosely based on the novel, inserting Miss Marple and changing the murderer's motive. •
They Do It with Mirrors combines some characters and adds an arson attack. • ''
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?'' is only loosely based on the novel, inserting Miss Marple and changing the plot and characters. •
The Pale Horse is very loosely based on the novel and inserts Miss Marple. •
The Secret of Chimneys is very loosely based on the novel (which did not include Miss Marple) and uses elements from the
Miss Marple short story
The Herb of Death. It also changes the killer's identity. •
The Blue Geranium is greatly embellished from the original short story. • ''
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side'' keeps closely to the original story. •
A Caribbean Mystery keeps closely to the original story, apart from the inclusion of real-life novelist
Ian Fleming and ornithologist
James Bond. • ''
Greenshaw's Folly combines the short story with elements from The Thumb Mark of St. Peter''. The story is embellished, but keeps to the core of the original works. •
Endless Night is a faithful adaptation of the novel (which did not include Miss Marple), but the story is very similar to
The Case of The Caretaker. ==Worldwide distribution==