Bingley Little Theatre has turned to the mistress of suspense, Agatha Christie, for its latest production.

Spider’s Web, described as a comedy thriller, starred Margaret Lockwood in the first production which later moved to the West End.

In 1960, it was turned into a film and was later made into a television play starring Penelope Keith.

The play revolves around Clarissa, second wife of diplomat Henry Hailsham-Brown. When she discovers a dead body in her home, and fears her stepdaughter may be the murderer, she tries to dispose of it before her husband returns with a foreign official and a government VIP.

Adept at spinning tall tales of adventure, Clarissa finds real-life murder too hard to handle. Having persuaded her house guests to help her, it soon becomes apparent that the dead man was linked to some of them.

As the web of deceit unravels, Clarissa pulls her friends into a desperate race to solve the mystery before the police find out and arrest her as their prime suspect.

Director David Templeton says: “Spider’s Web doesn’t have any of Christie’s well-known sleuths, but it is well-stocked with gifted amateurs and plodding professionals. The attraction is not so much in guessing ‘whodunnit’ as in observing the after-effects of the crime on those unlucky enough to have an inconvenient corpse turn up in the drawing room.”

Clarissa is played by Sam Ball, whose most recent musical theatre role was Nellie in Bingley Amateur Operatic’s production of South Pacific.

Peter Hall plays house guest Sir Rowland Delahaye, Paul Chewins plays Clarissa’s husband and David Kirk is Jeremy Warrender and Grace Partington who has been with Kaleidoscope – BLT’s youth section – for six years is making her debut on the main house stage in the role of Pippa.

Spider’s Web runs at Bingley Arts Centre from May 17 to 22 at 7.30pm. For tickets, ring (01274) 432000.