LOUISE Jameson playing Miss Marple heads the cast in this stage adaptation of an Agatha Christie classic so full of red herrings and unexpected twists and turns it calls for total concentration.

A down-page announcement in their local newspaper that a murder will be committed at a certain time that very evening in the house where the action is set causes a range of reactions among the occupants, chiefly that it is probably a joke in rather bad taste.

The wood panelled drawing room set and period clothes give the play a stylish 1950s’ feel. Most of the residents, it transpires, are comparative newcomers to the household of Letitia Blacklock, portrayed by Jo Castleton as a sympathetic and generous woman who has long provided a home for her oldest friend and recently taken in three young people loosely connected to her and in need of support.

During the hours before the fatefully appointed time, the characters emerge over the course of two scenes as well-defined and attractive individuals, including a couple of nosy neighbours who pop in hopeful of excitement, and the audience’s expectations of imminent drama are fulfilled just as the gathering collectively raises glasses of sherry.

Miss Blacklock’s subsequent dismissal of the police’s idea that she, not the body on the floor, was the intended target is reversed when a second murder occurs.

These dramatic incidents are momentary in a play defined by dialogue and by characters being gradually revealed as not all they claim to be. Never before, perhaps, has a bowl of violets from a vicarage garden provided so crucial a clue.

Among the thoroughly competent cast, Jameson’s Miss Marple quietly observes and delights in helping John Hester’s bluff Inspector Craddock.

Jane Shakespeare provides comic relief as Mitzi, a touchy Russian servant given to melodramatic outbursts.

Pru Farrier