If it were a game of Cluedo, you'd have to say Trevor Bannister dunnit in the theatre with a lethal cocktail of sublime idiocy and physical ineptitude.

Even when some of the humour in Peter Gordon's Agatha Christie spoof is a blunt instrument, Bannister's comic timing remains dagger-sharp.

The cast relish the absurdity of their country-house-weekend stock characters. The deliberate over-acting sparks a camaraderie that spills over the stage.

This is a fast-paced antidote to the predictable longueurs of its parent genre.

The usual suspects are assembled in a lovely wood-panelled drawing room replete with chintz: The vulnerable hostess, a buffoon-like colonel, the ingenue and her dodgy companion, the disreputable butler and so on.

Geoffrey Davies does an excellent line in pomposity as the colonel. Nicholas Smith is so good as the tipsy, answering-back butler that you suspect national sanity might be restored if a place could be found for him in a royal household.

Anna Karen is not quite pushy enough as the know-all Joan Maple but looks every inch the spinsterly busybody.

Gordon gives most of the high comedy to Trevor Bannister's homegrown Clouseau figure of Inspector Pratt. You love his mangling of language and delight in his incompetence.

The feelgood factor he generates is so high even such juvenile exchanges as, "My legs turned to jelly." "Don't attempt to trifle with me, sir," are a delight.

Murdered To Death runs until Saturday. Tickets cost £16, £18 and £19 (£ 14, £16 and £17 matinees). Call 01323 412000.

Review by David Wilkins, features@theargus.co.uk