Venables assists in the denouement staged by Lejeune and Miss Marple. Just like in the original, he is framed by Osbourne. In the 2010 ITV adaption The Pale Horse (Episode 1, series 5 of Agatha Christie's Marple), Venables is portrayed by Nigel Planer. He also admitted to Mark Easterbrook that he did not need to work all his life to acquire his wealth: 'one must plan one's coups-and that involves quite a lot of planning-but there is no need, really no need nowadays, to serve any sordid apprenticeship.' But equally these remarks could apply to making sound financial investments. To Mrs Ariadne Oliver he said that he had settled in Much Deeping precisely because he did not know anyone there. Certainly, the Inland Revenue service is interested in the source of his wealth. However there is no conclusive evidence to pin down Venables. The mastermind planned the operations and worked through others and was never caught. However he does use the air of suspicion over Venables to set a trap for the real murderer, a process which was achieved with cooperation from Venables himself.Īt the end of the book, Lejeune tells Mark Easterbrook off the record, that Venables might be the person who some years before had executed a series of brilliant bank robberies. However Inspector Lejeune quickly dismisses Venables as a suspect when he learns that Venables had polio and is confined to a wheel-chair. Subsequently, Osbourne wrote to tell the police to report that, by coincidence, he had come across the same man at a village fete in Much Deeping.įrom Lejeune and Mark Easterbrook's point of view, Venables certainly seemed to be the man who has the intelligence to plan and manage the 'murder-for-payment' scheme that linked to the murder of Father Gorman. Osbourne gave police a very definite description of him: thin, sloping shoulders, a very definite Adam's apple and a great beak of a nose. Venables becomes a suspect in the murder of Father Gorman after a pharmacist Zachariah Osbourne told the police that he saw him outside his shop following the Father.

The source of Venables' wealth is, however, a mystery to the villagers. Venables can also converse on a wide range of topics from East or West Africa to Borneo. Rhoda believes Venables was an explorer or traveller of some sort as his house is filled with exotic works of art and cultural artefacts from all around the world. According to Rhoda Despard, the house was in bad condition and falling apart but Venables spent a lot of money restoring it. Venables bought the house about three years before the events in the book. Venables's house, Priors Court lies a few miles outside the village. In the novel The Pale Horse, Mr Venables is a wealthy man who lives at the village of Much Deeping in Devon.

The pale horse marple