Margaret Rutherford’s true life story is much more eccentric than the most famous fictional role she ever played, her role of a lifetime. A role which appeared tailor-made for her: Miss Jane Marple – Agatha Christie’s amateur detective. In the four black and white interpretations of Agatha Christie’s international bestsellers, Rutherford wore her own costumes and put on her own make-up. Perhaps an indication of why Rutherford’s characterisation of Miss Marple has become so definitive, classic and unmistakeably English. In more than 40 films and over 100 stage plays, Oscar & Gold Globe winner Margaret Rutherford realised she possessed an incredible gift for timing and with this a natural talent for comedy. Secretly she always wanted to play Shakespeare’s Julia, but knew that with her idiosyncratic looks, jutting chin and portly figure she was just not destined to play romantic heroines. In fact, far more interesting roles lay ahead. Margaret Rutherford’s final resting place is in the cemetery at Gerrards Cross, where she shares a grave with Stringer Davis who passed away a year after his beloved wife. Her gravestone is inscribed with the words: DAME MARGARET TAYLOR RUTHERFORD - A BLITHE SPIRIT - a fitting epitaph because she really was that.
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