Press Releases

A hilarious homage to the classic detective farce, Miss Marble: The Early Years (2023), directed by Hazel Barnes, follows fan-favourite character Miss Marble as she attends a detective academy and becomes wrapped up in an evil plot to build a bomb. Where did the inspiration for Miss Marble: The Early Years come from? I’ve always been a big fan of Laurel and Hardy, so I think a degree of inspiration came from them – particularly with Steve Taylor’s Henchmen, Heist Harry and Tealeaf Tom. The main inspiration, hopefully obvious, is Ealing comedies, like Ladykillers (1955). It’s actually been a running theme to take inspiration from Ladykillers in all the films in the franchise actually, elements from that film can be found scattered across all of the Let me See The Kids and Miss Marble films. For instance, the entire plot of the villains using an elderly woman as part of their plan, only to find later on she’s dramatically uncooperative and incredibly difficult to work with, is completely taken from Ladykillers, and can be seen in Miss Marble: The Early Years as Steve Taylor and his henchmen trying to work with Miss Cellaneous to get materials from her academy. You can see how these inspirations have manifested with the fact the film is in 4:3 ratio, black and white, and uses music from exclusively the 1930s with a few exceptions, noticeably the orchestral cover of Money, Money, Money by ABBA. But it isn’t just films of the era you’re trying to recreate that you’re homaging; fans and critics have pointed out the references to previous films of your Let Me See The Kids franchise, is that right? Absolutely. Miss Marble: The Early Years is a love-letter to fans of that franchise, in part. We wouldn’t have even made a backstory for Miss Marble if she didn’t become such a beloved character in Let Me See The Kids 2 (2022). I was very conscious of the fans during the missile strike scene - spoiler alert to those who haven’t seen the film yet. Let Me See The Kids 1 (2020) very famously ends with the missile ordered by The Hitman landing on Carol’s house. Of course, we didn’t actually drop a real missile on a house – I used a CG one provided by an app called Action Movie Special Effects, which I was able to greenscreen in Yes, it’s a very memorable ending Precisely: the missile strike scene in Miss Marble is packed full of more CG greenscreen missiles, rockets, planes, and other destructive things – a real “thank you” to the fans. What about the cast then, the “Barnes clan”, as they have been called, are back again and I must say it’s a fantastic cast? Well thank you very much, I of course play the lead, Miss Marble, but as usual, you can also see me stepping in as other roles. In this one I also played Tealeaf Tom, and a couple of pubgoers. Dawn Heather was a very glad return, we’re very grateful to have her back again, it’s also great to see her in more diverse roles than her performance in Let Me See The Kids 2 (2022). In Miss Marble, she plays the difficult and victimised Miss Cellaneous, doing a remarkable Scottish accent, as well as Cockney henchman Heist Harry. Abraham Barnes is back again of course in a selection of supporting roles, giving his trademark casual, calmly impatient demeanour to the academy’s chef, a policeman prison guard, as well as the main villain lead, Steve Taylor.