Spring is here and with it came a further Murder Mystery evening performed by the talents of the Kingston Bagpuize Drama Group.

This time it was Bad Fortune by Fiona J Phillips and Janet Kilgallon-Brook.

Set in the plush abode of Richard Myers, who is not a very nice chap it would appear. Combining being nasty to his wife Helen with dallying with her sister Angela, it was obvious Richard didn’t want the dinner party Helen had organised.

Ironically nasty Richard was played by the nice Mike Lacey, a dab hand at this type of role, Mike easily convinced us all he would prefer to have been alone and secluded with the luscious Angela ably played by Paula Eastwood.

The part of Helen was performed by newcomer to the Group Sandra Sabathy who though showing some nerves, played her part well as the cuckolded wife trying to pretend everything is fine as she organises her party. She has arranged a Fortune Teller, Madame Rosa, to entertain her guests. Having been briefed beforehand, Madam Rosa gave a reading for most of the cast one by one, slipping in the several titbits of information she knew about them. This led to her demise, which she obviously didn’t see coming, so there you have it, whodunnit?

Mary-Elizabeth Shewry was Madam Rosa, and indeed did look the part with great props. Again nerves caused a few line problems but this is to be expected on a first night, albeit the only night.

The set for single evening’s performance was impressive and gave the flavour of an upmarket dwelling inhabited by an aspiring executive, complete with him reading The Times. Nice touch.

Also attending the dinner party was Gabby Lightfoot, Helen’s friend. The role was performed by Andrea Spencer, a legend in the KBDG and as per never put a foot wrong. Sally Lacey played Betty Sparrow a neighbour who is married to Stan. Stan it appears has more sex appeal than Poldark. We never meet him but it seems he has dabbled with Gabby and sired a baby with her, he then married Betty when he was already married to somebody else, you get the picture. The plot got very complicated, no doubt to throw you off the scent, and it worked.

Directed by Rob Bateman, who also hosted the evening, Bad Fortune was a typical Murder Mystery and it was our good fortune to see this production.

True the summing up took longer than the Chilcot enquiry but it didn’t help having a dicky microphone.

Who did the deed? Well it was nasty Richard wasn’t it. He didn’t want Madam Rosa spoiling his lifestyle so she had to go.

We’d got Betty down for the job, sorry about that Sally.