The World of Murder Mysteries

Most of our scripts are set in the county of Midshire where the main town is Biggerton, where all the businesses are based. There is a village called Littleton with a manor house and church which often turn up in scripts. There is also a town between called Middling where many of the characters live.

Characters often turn up in more than one script. For example Rolie Crump in The Reading of The Will has a girlfriend called Tiffany Charms who is referred to but not present. Tiffany actually turned up in Murder At The Troxy, one of our bespoke scripts, as a dancer. In this same script Annie Messages, the victim in The Reading of The Will was alive and well and working as a solicitor's clerk. She works for Canwee, Billem and Howe who are the solicitors in any script where contracts, prenups or divorce proceedings are a clue.

We extend families too, so Tiffany has a sister called Ruby and she turns up in Clue D'oh as a jewel thief. Meanwhile Herbie Ravioli, the shady investor with Mafia links turns up in various scripts including Little House of Horrors as a main character and anywhere else where dodgy money is required.

How Does This Help?

This is fun for the actors, and we always enjoy seeing a long standing character turn up in a new scenario. However, there is a very important way in which this adds to your experience.

The actors all have characters who they tend to play regularly and many have notched up 100 or more shows in those roles. The more you play a role the more you add to them, in terms of their back story, their relationships and simply how well the actor knows their character as a 'real' person. When we are asked to create a new bespoke script we would be playing the key characters for the first time, and we would not have that depth of development which participants really enjoy. By bringing an existing character into the role the depth and most of their backstory remains. It also means that other characters, when hearing a name, can talk about that 'person' with credibility.

So we will try to bring one or two into every bespoke script. This is a little trick which adds depth to performances and helps us to deliver on our goal of making the murder mystery experience plausible as well as great fun.

Visit our clues and plots section for more tips and tales. It is 'under construction' but there are lots of ideas there already.