Julia McKenzie returns as amateur sleuth Marple in spooky tale The Pale Horse on ITV1

As usual, Agatha Christie's Marple has a star-studded cast, did you know any of them?
I worked with Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine and I played JJ Feild’s mum in a modern TV film of Jack And The Beanstalk. Lynda Baron and I were in Follies on stage together and I appeared with Bill Paterson in Guys And Dolls, so I enjoyed it very much.

It must have been fun acting with Pauline again.
We do get on well and we reckon there ought to be a spin-off series. Pauline plays the proprietor of The Pale Horse and at one point there’s a séance involving her assistant Sybil, played by Susan Lynch. I wasn’t in the scene, but I had to watch – it was hilarious. Pauline had a drum and it made me laugh so much.

Had you read the book?
Yes I had and it’s a very good choice. I think people will find anything involving white witches intriguing.

Have you ever had a ghostly experience?
When I was a kid, but then kids see things don’t they? At my grandma’s house I was always a bit scared to go to the loo upstairs on my own. I think I must have been about five and I thought I saw someone walk past the door. When you’re nervous, you see things you don’t really see.

What is Miss Marple’s attitude to evil?
She feels that wickedness must be punished and she’s very much a mouthpiece for Agatha Christie who was very much in favour of capital punishment. I don’t think the younger generation realises so much that people did hang.

She may be living in the Fifties, but Marple is quite hip for her time isn't she?
One of the actresses said that Marple was quite foxy! I don’t really know what that is, but I love the thought that I might be. She’s got quite a modern sense of humour.

It’s a very demanding filming schedule, how do you cope?
They take very good care of me. If we’re filming on location I normally sleep nearby so that I get another couple of hours sleep rather than travelling backwards and forwards to London.

You're not doing any more theatre work are you?
People keep ringing me up and saying, ‘What do you mean you’re not going to do any more theatre?’ but at the moment there just isn’t time. I like to sit and look at the scenery a bit, smell the flowers.

Would you like to do more Cranford?
Of course, who wouldn’t? The cast all phone each other quite a lot because we know each other very well. We all think Eileen Atkins' character, Miss Deborah Jenkyns, should come back from the dead, a bit like in Dallas!

By Mary Comerford