"THIS probably the happiest company I have ever worked with, which is lovely as this is probably going to be my last tour,” says Judy Cornwell.

The Keeping Up Appearances star has spent the last six months on the road with the Middle Ground Theatre Company production of A Murder Is Announced, playing Agatha Christie’s spinster super-sleuth Miss Marple.

But the now 76-year-old actress, who has been involved in showbusiness since she made her stage debut at the Royal Hippodrome in Brighton aged just 15, revealed to The Guide this will likely be her last touring production before she retires.

“I am getting too old,” she says. “It is very tiring going round the country, up to Scotland, down to the West Country, then over to the Isle of Wight... My husband is getting lonely, I have to phone to him every night to make sure he is alright and let him know I am alright. It has been a long tour.
It is packing up a case, doing all your washing on a day off, then packing it all up and heading off again. It gets to a point when you are just thinking ‘oh god, I am tired’.

“But because I am working with such lovely people I am feeling energised and this 76-year-old is having her brain stretched all the time.”

Travelling the country as Miss Marple sees the mystery of Christie classic A Murder Is Announced unfold every evening as the residents of Chipping Cleghorn are astonished to read in the paper a murder will take place on Friday at Little Paddocks.

When the curious residents gather at the country house they are plunged into a darkness, a gun is fired, and one of them lays dead.

It is then down to Miss Marple to solve the mystery and unravel what lies beneath the smiles and pleasantries of the villagers.

“It is all about turning the character into your own,” says Judy, who for the first time in her 60 year career playing the ageing amateur detective.

“I knew what I wanted to do with the character,” she says. “I wanted her to be observant, look as if she is not taking any notice but taking notice all the same, and listening intently to everybody while also finding little bits of humour in her and give the audience a few laughs.”

The beloved elderly amateur detective has featured in more than 30 of Christie’s works and, along with Hercule Poirot, is one of her most beloved characters.

Consistently finding new life, Cornwell says much Miss Marple’s longevity comes from her positive representation of the elderly.

“You are allowing a 76-year-old to have a brain,” she says. “You are allowing a 76-year-old to have the ability to size up a character. Sometimes this will lead to her having confrontations but eventually she will find the answer.

“It shows there are a lot of older people with very good brains. When people start opening the door for you or offering you their seat on the tube you think ‘oh my god, they think I am really decrepit’, but your brain is still working.”

She adds: “It is a mistake for people to assume the moment you turn 70 you are out of the race – you are not.”

Cornwell adds: “I love Agatha Christie because she has a sense of humour, she has a wonderful sense of humour about the middle class, about snobbery and she is very observant of people."

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