Murder, mayhem and mistaken identities are all tangled together in a cynical comedy from two of British TV’s finest writers, as part of this year's Classic Thriller Season...
Between them writers Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner contributed to pretty much everything from British TV’s golden age with shows like The Persuaders, Jason King, The Avengers, Doctor Who, Bergerac, Man in a Suitcase,and many many more (check them out IMDb but be sure you have an afternoon free). They've also racked up prolific big screen credits and done plenty of writing for the stage.
Anybody for Murder was first produced in 1990 but even then it had a retro feel, combining familiar aspects of the crime genre - murder for an insurance payout, murder to secure an inheritance, swapped identities, foiled schemes, blackmail - with a frenetic Brian Rix-style structure that has characters dashing around, slamming doors, and bounding up and down stairs to such a degree that you begin to fear for the stability of the set!
The play begins in media res with financially challenged Max (John Goodrum) administering poison to a bowl of a sugar with the intent of pocketing the £10,000 life insurance on his wife Janet (Karen Henson), the better to start a new life with his mistress Suzy (Sarah Wynne Kordas). Max and Janet occupy a remote villa on a small Greek island, so you’d think he would have the privacy to conduct and get away with the crime. Not necessarily so.
Matters are complicated by unannounced visits from his neighbour Edgar (Jeremy Lloyd Thomas) an alcoholic with ambitions to write a crime novel, and the arrival of Janet’s distant relatives Mary (Susan Earnshaw) and George (David Gilbrook), who bring news of an inheritance. An inheritance that very much depends on Janet not being dead.
All of that, by the way, is merely the set up. What follows is a study in comedic chaos as Max goes to increasingly desperate lengths to adapt his plans to the myriad twists of fate and double dealings that play out. Whilst operating within an established set of tropes, Clemens and Spooner leave plenty of room for the unexpected.
Sarah Wynne Kordas’s set design is eye-catching and uncluttered, Karen Henson’s direction is geared to movement and timing (get either of these wrong and the play would be a disaster), and the cast give it their all. Susan Earnshaw and Jeremy Lloyd Thomas in particular are standouts.
With somewhat darker fare on the horizon in John Goodrum’s The Nightmare Room and Robert Thomas’s The Mantrap, the sunny but cynical pleasures of Anybody for Murder? proves an ideal start to this year’s Classic Thriller season.
Anybody for Murder? is showing at Nottingham'sTheatre Royal from 11-15 August 2026
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
