IS THERE such a thing as the perfect murder? The question is posed by one character to another in this classic British crime thriller and the reply is in the affirmative “but in real life things don’t always turn out as the murderer intended”.

This is the pivotal point that has gripped audiences since 1952, when Frederick Knott’s play was first produced on BBC television and a couple of years later became a Hitchcock film starring Grace Kelly.

The five-strong cast of talking Scarlet’s new production is headed by Coronation Street’s dishy doctor Oliver Mellor as the urbane Tony Wendice, with former Hollyoaks actress Terri Dwyer as his vivacious wife Sheila, whose past secret liaison is revealed when her ex-lover arrives on the scene.

There is a stylish period set for the Wendices’ smart London flat with French windows which, essentially, open on to a terrace and are frequently left unlocked.

Tension is established from the start in performances as beautifully crafted as the play, with Mellor’s charm and uxorious affection soon revealed as a veneer for chilling menace and calculated revenge.

Marcus Hutton exudes sympathy as Sheila’s former amour, crime writer Max Halliday, newly arrived from a year churning out whodunits for American TV, thus equipped to know about getting away with murder.

As Captain Lesgate, Tony’s stooge in need of cash, Jolyon Young shows affability slipping into greed that gets the better of judgment.

Dwyer moves through a range of emotions, from marital unhappiness and hope to regret, distress and terror. John Hester’s hoodwinked Inspector Hubbard finally comes up trumps in a finale that reveals a handful of errors key to the complex plot.

Written when hanging was the penalty for murder, this adds extra poignancy nowadays. Harder to credit is the speed at which the justice system apparently once operated.

Pru Farrier