Death By Fatal Murder

Over thirty Brothers and wives gathered at The Capitol theatre in Horsham on Thursday night to enjoy this rib-tickling “Inspector Pratt” murder mystery set in an English country house during the Second World War. Bro Philip Hayden astutely observed that it seemed to be very much in the style of erstwhile TV comedy series ‘Allo ‘Allo and later research has proved that it does indeed come from the same stable! (Well done Bro Hayden, a great future as a theatre critic evidently awaits you.) In fact it even featured an ‘Allo ‘Allo star – Richard Gibson, aka Herr Flick, here again cast as a military man but this time a very charming English Squadron Leader. Also immediately recognisable in a distinguished cast was good old Dirty Den from Eastenders - sorry, I mean actor Leslie Grantham – playing an archetypal amorous Italian by name of Garibaldi.

The star of the stage, however, had to be Christopher Elderwood who gave an hysterically funny performance as the bungling Inspector Pratt and completely failed to solve the mystery of a murdered police constable or to figure out anyone’s real identity (hardly anyone proved to be quite who or what they said they were). Luckily more astute minds were on hand to piece together what really happened and all was finally revealed.

This was comedy at its best and there was scarcely a moment to catch breath between the laughs. An excellent evening, preceded for some of the party by a delicious meal at the China Brasserie across the road. Our thanks to Bro President and Bro Vice-President for organising the outing, and to Bro Gerry Lydon for coordinating the meal arrangements on the night. And of course to Ian Dickinson Productions Limited for an evening of good clean(ish) fun!