Sheffield Lyceum thriller Dial M for Murder starring Tom Chambers kills the suspense with laughs
and live on Freeview channel 276
The show is billed as a seat-gripping thriller but the quirkiness of the production effectively does away with this. Characters occasionally break out into dance moves – and not just former Strictly winner Tom Chambers – or make strangely elaborate gestures.
The story, which is familiar if you have seen the 1950 Hitchcock film, revolves around Tom Chambers’ character, ex-tennis star Tony Wendice, who blackmails a dodgy former schoolfriend into agreeing to murder his wife, Margot (Diana Vickers), who is having an affair with crime writer Max (Michael Salami).
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Hide AdThe scene where Wendice entraps his friend is full of sexual tension – it’s clear he’s getting his kicks out of the plan, too.
Everything goes wrong when Margot manages to kill her assailant in self-defence, forcing Wendice to try to cover his tracks. The twists come as he has to out-think the police and trick them into thinking Margot wasn’t acting in self-defence but was a blackmail victim taking revenge.
There’s nothing wrong with the acting – the murder scene is done pretty well – and Christopher Hubbard does an exceptional job doubling up as the hired killer and Police Inspector Hubbard. That’s one twist I missed until I checked the cast list afterwards.
Tom Chambers is convincing as a sociopath who can turn on the suave charm but occasionally lets the mask slip in public to show thinly-veiled menace underneath.
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Hide AdDiana Vickers captures the fragility of a woman who has undergone a terrible ordeal but has a worse one to come when the noose begins to tighten around her neck – the play is set in the 1960s when capital punishment was still legal. Max is touching as a man in love who is desperate to save her from the gallows.
It was a clever touch to show the police officer’s hostility towards Max because he is played by a black actor.
The action flows well and, if the show wasn’t played for laughs, it might have deserved its claim to be a ‘masterclass in suspense’. The only time I was on edge of my seat was wondering which of the dodgy lights on set would come on at the wrong time.