Marple: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

This novel by Agatha Christie was dedicated to Dame Margaret Rutherford, the actress who played Miss Marple in a series of four British MGM second features in the 1960s. Although Christie thought that Rutherford was the wrong choice for the role, she highly respected her professionalism.

The title is a reference to the poem "The Lady of Shalott" (1833) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). The poem depicts the fate of Elaine of Astolat (the titular Lady), a young noblewoman imprisoned in a tower up the river from Camelot. She sees only reflections of the world surrounding her, though a looking glass. She is cursed to face doom if she looks directly at something. When she sees Lancelot directly, the looking glass cracks and Elaine's fate is sealed.

Miss Marple's phone number is shown as St. Mary Mead 235.

Hugh Bonneville and Samuel Barnett who appear as the Police Inspector and his Sergeant, appeared together two years later in the BBC comedy series "Twenty Twelve" as Ian Fletcher, head of Deliverance for the 2012 London Olympics, and his PA Daniel Stroud.

The source novel "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" was first published in 1962, and features the fictional English village of St. Mary Mead having underwent many changes in the post-war period. Among the changes was the death of recurring character Arthur Bantry, the sale of their residence Gossington Hall (featured in The Body in the Library) by his widow Dolly Bantry, and St. Mary Mead having new residents.