Actress

During the war, my mother used to take me to the local repertory theatre on a Monday night, and we used to get two seats for the price of one, for nine pence, in the gods.

I feel I could be walking down the street, and if somebody talked to me, I could just slot into 'Miss Marple' and know how she would react.

A book becomes something else once it's dramatized.

Quite honestly, I think that if you are making a lot of television programs with a central character, then ultimately it can become boring if you know nothing about them. I personally want to know, or get to know, things about a character. It doesn't mean to say that they still can't have a certain mystery about them.

I've spent all my life playing roles that illustrious people have played before me.

'Miss Marple' enjoys every minute of her existence and is not worried about getting old.

People do stop me a lot, and what is really very rewarding is that the ages of the people who stop me vary so widely. Surprisingly, there are a lot of young people - even children.

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.