In comedy it's claimed there are seven basic jokes and everything else is simply a variation on those themes. What then of murder mysteries?
Well, there's probably seven formerly well heeled homes like Rodingham Manor – conveniently a couple of hours from London in an era before mobile phones and computers and usually populated by fading aristocracy or rising middle classes.
Such is th
e case with Frederick Knott's compact but suitably far-fetched contribution to the genre which sees the cash-strapped Honourable Clive Rodingham about to sell off 500 years of family heritage to the upwardly-mobile Jack the Lad Charles Sturrock much to the distress of his literary-inclined younger brother David Rodingham.
Fertile ground indeed, especially when Sturrock is as much a cad as a lad and his pretty wife Julie shares a taste for writing with the pen-pushing David.
Throw in an arsenal of firearms and a money-spinning motorway plan and it's hardly surprising that life expectancy is about as low as in the Midsomer Murders catchment area.
EastEnders veteran and Grand Theatre regular Lesley Grantham makes the most of his role as Sturrock – even when prompting some unexpected laughter whilst brandishing a threatening leather belt at his wife, but former Emmerdale actor Paul Opacic rarely fleshes the toffish Clive Rodingham beyond an unconvincing two dimensions.
Strangely, lines such as "the age of the country squire is over" and financial dealings being "as solid as a city band" skimmed away like pebbles over water.
Simply another part of the evening's "mystery" perhaps?
