The topic of ‘culture in crisis’ is one of those which at first look may evoke a false impression that it is easy to deal with. Even though we are now confronted with the serious issue of the world pandemic which has affected culture in the broadest sense really hard, culture seems to have been in crisis for longer time than anyone would have noticed before the pandemic. The way all the areas of culture operate nowadays may evoke in many people the feeling that artists and other people involved in all kinds of creative processes are lost for ideas (and means). I decided to opt for one area that is closest to mass ‘consumers’ of what we like to refer to as popular culture – film adaptations of some of the most traditional literary texts still alive – detective fiction. For my research and subsequent analysis, comparison and a bit of confrontation with criticism, I selected a few novels by Agatha Christie featuring Miss Marple as one of her most popular sleuths and their adaptations. Before getting to the adaptations themselves, however, I also tried to offer a critical look at theatre as one of the branches of performing arts closely related to TV production through creative teams composed largely of people of similar professions, thus facing similar problems.
