"Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced - A Miss Marple Mystery" by The Middle Ground Theatre Company

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

An ad in the personal column of the local newspaper announces that someone will be murdered on Friday 13th October at 6.30pm at Little Paddocks, the home of Letitia Blacklock. The lady of the house is convinced that it must be a joke but the village of Chipping Cleghorn, including Miss Marple, turn up to see what all the fuss is about.

Set in the 1950's where afternoon tea and servants are the norm for a well to do lady, everything takes place in just the one setting, so there's no scene changes, which keeps everything simple for the audience.

Now I am not going to give anything away here because I love the books, films and plays of Agatha Christie, but have never been any good at working out whodunnit. This is no different, thanks to the many twists and red herrings in the storyline. Within the first twenty minutes or so we get a body and a murder, so the advert came true. But all is not as it seems as we try and discover who the murderer is, and why the person who was murdered, was murdered.

Sarah Thomas plays a wonderfully classic Miss Marple, even down to the slight smile and the twinkle in the eye. Now I have always been a Miss Marple fan; I have also loved "Last Of The Summer Wine" for as long as I can remember - I was watching it earlier today, and seeing Sarah, who played Glenda in "Summer Wine", topped my evening off perfectly. Glenda, by the way, was wife of Barry.

Barbara Wilshere played the possible intended victim, Letitia Blacklock, and owner of Little Paddocks. Letitia could be in line for a pretty tidy sum of money, and while we aren't 100% sure that she could be the victim, there is motive to bump her off for monetary gain.

Tom Butcher is Inspector Craddock; you may recognise Tom as playing another policeman, PC Steve Loxton in "The Bill" for many years. As usual in these stories the Inspector always comes up second to Miss Marple, and here it's no different but there is great respect shown by Craddock for Miss Marple at the big reveal.

Craddock's Sergeant Mellors is played by Jog Maher.

Karen Drury, for those of us old enough to remember "Brookside", will recognise Karen as Susannah Farnham in the soap. Karen plays a wonderfully nutty character - which I mean in the nicest of ways - Bunny keeps getting things confused, dates confused, people confused and names confused...or does she?

Lucy Evans, again another recognisable face from the soaps as she played Lauren Wilson in "Coronation Street", plays Julia Simmons who resides at Little Paddocks and is the sister of Patrick Simmons, but these siblings seem to be very close, when they are not bickering!!!

Will Huntington plays Patrick Simmons, who we soon discover has a secret of his own, but where does the secret fit in with the murder plot, if at all?

Tom Gibbons plays Edmund Sweetenham, who is a writer of some intellect, who accompanies his mother, Mrs Sweetenham to the 6.30 appointment at Little Paddocks. Now we all know that by a certain age, no son wants to accompany their mother to an evening soiree, unless there is some reason for him to be there. Or is he just being a good son?

Dot Smith plays Mrs Sweetenham, who is just a little interested in the ad in the paper and wants to find out what it's all about. Well it's only a small village so she has to show an interest, hasn't she?

I really enjoyed Lydia Piechowiak's character of Mitzi, the maid and cook. Mitzi is described as a Mitteleuropa refugee who resides at Little Paddocks. The accent is perfect, but then again Lydia is Polish, which explains the wonderful accent. Mitzi manages to get a few phrases wrapped around her neck, like being a "bucket-washer" as opposed to "bottle-washer" and when she was going to walk out advised Letitia that she was "giving her the sack". Mitzi provides quite a bit of the comedy, as well as a some of the twists!

Emma Fernell plays Phillipa Haymes, who we find out works as an horticulturist at the nearby Dayas Hall, and also is a resident of Little Paddocks. Listen carefully throughout this play as there is a hint or two about what secret Phillipa may be keeping from the rest of them.

And finally, Luke Rhodri, who gets a quick entrance, and an even quicker exit as a character called Rudi Scherz. More than this I'll not expand as we discover more about Rudi as the play unfolds!

Loved the period costumes and of course the wonderful RP clipped accents, so terribly British!

Directed & Designed by Michael Lunney, and the set is wonderfully lush. What I love is that you can tell the class of the people because nothing matches on set. None of the furniture are part of a set and have been put together as if collected from different sources, but still manages to look classy in a crass kind of way. Loved the old valve radio which had to warm up and glow just before the music came out of it.

It's all marvellous fun with enough red herrings and twists to keep you guessing right to the end.

"A Murder Is Announced" is being staged at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 4 June.