Ham sandwiches are laid on, the house at Copplestone Court in Kent is tidy and the domestic staff safely out of earshot.

Then Clarissa discovers a body in the drawing room.
What to do?

The last thing her husband can afford is a scandal.

So instead of calling the police, Clarissa decides on a DIY option, enlisting the help of her guardian and his fellow guests in disposing of the evidence.

Such are the twists, turns and red herrings which develop in the touring Agatha Christie Theatre Company's production of Spider's Web, at the Theatre Royal this week.

They have delighted Nottingham audiences before and the current play offers a perfect example of how a somewhat dated thriller – it is set in 1952 – can be freshened up without losing a lot of its original charm.

Most of the cast are familiar via television: Melanie Gutteridge (Clarissa) as The Bill's PC Emma Keane, who was blown up earlier this year, Denis Lill, the pipe-smoking surgeon in The Royal, Catherine Shipton, who was Duffy in Casualty, Ben Nealon, Lieutenant Forsythe in Soldier, Soldier, Bruce Montague and Robert Duncan.

It all comes together in a hide and seek caper which echoes Basil Fawlty in The Kipper And The Corpse, although it is Clarissa's rapidly changing explanations which weave an ever increasing tangled web of deceit in the drawing room.

There is a nod to the period, too, with reference to athletic heroes Roger Bannister and Chris Chataway, air ace Neville Duke and Dickie Valentine's hit Finger Of Suspicion.

The cast also did well to overcome the irritations of a bleeping mobile phone in the stalls, which received some 15 text messages during the first half of Monday's opening night.

A front-of-house plea during the interval shamed the culprit into silence for the remainder of the evening.

He or she apparently remained unidentified, which is perhaps just as well.

Otherwise Denis Lill's police inspector might have had another murder to solve.

Spider's Web is at the Theatre Royal until Saturday.