# Joan Hickson

Joan Bogle Hickson (5 August 1906 – 17 October 1998) 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. 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.
She 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 she 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".
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.
Her 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, and 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 Queen Elizabeth II was reported to have said, "You play the part just as one envisages it." 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.

## Wivenhoe

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

## Marriage

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

## Death

Hickson died of a stroke at Colchester General Hospital in 1998 at the age of 92. She is interred under her married name, Joan Bogle Butler, 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

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1934 | Trouble in Store | Mabel | Short |
| 1935 | Widow's Might | Burroughs | |
| 1936 | The Man Who Could Work Miracles | Effie | |
| 1937 | Love from a Stranger | Emmy | |
| 1937 | The Lilac Domino | Katrina, school dustmaid | |
| 1938 | Second Thoughts | Ellen | |
| 1940 | Sailors Don't Care | Woman Carried Ashore | Uncredited |
| 1941 | Freedom Radio | Katie | |
| 1943 | The Saint Meets the Tiger | Mary (Aunt Agatha's Maid) | Uncredited |
| 1944 | Don't Take It to Heart | Mrs Pike | |
| 1945 | The Rake's Progress | Miss Parker | |
| 1946 | The Trojan Brothers | Ada | |
| 1946 | I See a Dark Stranger | Manx Hotel Manageress | |
| 1947 | So Well Remembered | Mother | Uncredited |
| 1948 | This Was a Woman | Miss Johnson | |
| 1948 | Just William's Luck | Hubert's Mother | |
| 1948 | Bond Street | Blanche – Seamstress | Uncredited |
| 1948 | The Guinea Pig | Mrs Read | |
| 1948 | It's Hard to Be Good | Mending Woman | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Marry Me! | Mrs Pearson | |
| 1949 | Don't Ever Leave Me | Mrs Pearson | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Celia | Mrs Haldane | |
| 1950 | Seven Days to Noon | Mrs Peckett | |
| 1950 | The Magnet | Mrs Ward | |
| 1951 | Hell Is Sold Out | Hortense, the housekeeper | |
| 1951 | High Treason | Mrs Ellis | |
| 1951 | The Magic Box | Mrs Stukely | |
| 1952 | Blind Man's Bluff | Mrs Kipps | |
| 1952 | The Card | Mrs Codleyn | |
| 1952 | The Tall Headlines | Waitress | |
| 1952 | Curtain Up | Harry's Landlady | |
| 1952 | No Haunt for a Gentleman | Mme Omskaya | |
| 1952 | Hindle Wakes | Mrs Hawthorn | |
| 1953 | Deadly Nightshade | Mrs Fenton | |
| 1953 | Shoot First | Woman Station Announcer | |
| 1953 | Sailor of the King | Hotel Manager | Uncredited |
| 1953 | Love in Pawn | Woman in Telephone Box | Uncredited |
| 1954 | The Million Pound Note | Maggie | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Doctor in the House | Mrs Groaker | |
| 1954 | The House Across the Lake | Mrs Hardcastle | |
| 1954 | What Every Woman Wants | Polly Ann | |
| 1954 | Dance, Little Lady | Mrs Matthews | |
| 1954 | The Crowded Day | Mrs Jones | |
| 1954 | To Dorothy a Son | Pub Landlady | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Mad About Men | Mrs Forster | |
| 1955 | As Long as They're Happy | Barmaid | |
| 1955 | Doctor at Sea | Mrs Thomas | |
| 1955 | Value for Money | Mrs Perkins | |
| 1955 | The Woman for Joe | Publican's Wife | Uncredited |
| 1955 | A Time to Kill | Miss Edinger | |
| 1955 | Simon and Laura | Barmaid | |
| 1955 | An Alligator Named Daisy | Piano Customer | Uncredited |
| 1956 | Lost | Pharmacist | Uncredited |
| 1956 | Jumping for Joy | Lady Emily Cranfield | |
| 1956 | The Man Who Never Was | Landlady | |
| 1956 | Port of Escape | Rosalie Watchett | |
| 1956 | The Extra Day | Mrs West | |
| 1956 | The Last Man to Hang | Mrs Prynne | |
| 1956 | Child in the House | Cook | |
| 1957 | Carry On Admiral | Mother | |
| 1957 | No Time for Tears | Sister Duckworth | |
| 1957 | Barnacle Bill | Mrs Kent | |
| 1958 | Happy Is the Bride | Mrs Bowels | |
| 1958 | Law and Disorder | Aunt Florence | |
| 1958 | Chain of Events | Barmaid | |
| 1958 | Behind the Mask | Lady | Uncredited |
| 1958 | The Horse's Mouth | Woman in queue at Tate Gallery | Uncredited |
| 1959 | Carry On Nurse | Sister | |
| 1959 | The 39 Steps | Miss Dobson | |
| 1959 | Upstairs and Downstairs | Rosemary | |
| 1959 | Please Turn Over | Saleswoman | |
| 1960 | Doctor in Love | Nurse | Uncredited |
| 1960 | The 3 Worlds of Gulliver | Patient at Dr Gulliver's Surgery | Uncredited |
| 1960 | Carry On Constable | Mrs May | |
| 1960 | No Kidding | Cook | |
| 1960 | Carry On Regardless | Head Matron | |
| 1961 | His and Hers | Phoebe | |
| 1961 | Raising the Wind | Mrs Bostwick | |
| 1961 | Murder, She Said | Mrs Kidder | |
| 1962 | Crooks Anonymous | Lady | |
| 1962 | In the Doghouse | Miss Gibbs | |
| 1962 | I Thank a Fool | Landlady | |
| 1963 | Nurse on Wheels | Mrs Wood | |
| 1963 | Heavens Above! | Housewife | |
| 1965 | The Secret of My Success | Mrs Pringle | |
| 1968 | Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter | Landlady | |
| 1970 | Carry On Loving | Mrs Grubb | |
| 1971 | Friends | Lady in Bookstore | |
| 1972 | A Day in the Death of Joe Egg | Grace | |
| 1973 | Theatre of Blood | Mrs Sprout | |
| 1973 | Carry On Girls | Mrs Dukes | |
| 1974 | Confessions of a Window Cleaner | Mrs Radlett | |
| 1975 | One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing | Mrs Gibbons | |
| 1979 | Yanks | Mrs Moody | |
| 1982 | Gandhi | Woman in court | Uncredited |
| 1983 | The Wicked Lady | Aunt Agatha | |
| 1986 | Clockwise | Mrs Trellis | |
| 1990 | King of the Wind | Duchess of Marlborough | |
| 1993 | Century | Mrs Whitweather | Final film role |

## Partial television credits

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1946 | The Corn is Green | Mrs Watty | TV movie |
| 1947 | Busman's Honeymoon | Miss Twitterton | TV movie |
| 1950 | Over the Odds | Mabel Phelps | TV movie |
| 1956 | David Copperfield | Miss Lavinia Spenlow | 3 episodes |
| 1958 | The Invisible Man | Madame Dupont | Episode: "The Mink Coat" |
| 1960 | Barnaby Rudge | Mrs Varden | 10 episodes |
| 1963 | BBC Sunday-Night Play | Edith Swinney | Episode: "How to Get Rid of Your Wife" |
| 1963-66 | Our Man at St Mark's | Mrs Peace | 46 episodes |
| 1964 | Thursday Theatre | Mrs Jenkins | Episode: "The Cure for Love" |
| 1969 | Sinister Street | Mrs Cleghorne | 3 episodes |
| 1969 | Oh, Brother! | Mother Joan | Episode: "A Mother in Israel" |
| 1970 | Bachelor Father | Mrs Pugsley | 8 episodes |
| 1970 | From a Bird's Eye View | Hilda Tuttle | Episode: "Family Tree" |
| 1972 | ITV Saturday Night Theatre | Mrs Hope-Rising | Episode: "Just in Time for Christmas" |
| 1973 | Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? | Mrs Chambers | Episode: "Count Down" |
| 1974 | Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? | Mrs Chambers | Episode: "Heart to Heart" |
| 1975 | Within These Walls | Edna Dewfall | Episode: "A Free Woman" |
| 1976 | Happy Ever After | Mrs Henderson | Episode: "Old Folks' Party" |
| 1981 | Great Expectations | Miss Havisham | |
| 1983 | The Outsider | Lillian Wrathdale | Episode: "The Homecoming" |
| 1984 | Poor Little Rich Girls | Lady Harriet | 5 episodes |
| 1985 | Time for Murder | Miss Wainwright | Episode: "Mister Clay, Mister Clay" |
| 1989 | Boon | Della | Episode: "One Reborn Every Minute" |