No mystery to enduring success of 'whodunnit'

The Mousetrap | Theatre Royal Plymouth Until Saturday

- ANDY PHILLIPS

CAN you keep a secret? If so, then you could join more than 10 million people by taking in Agatha Christie's classic whodunnit The Mousetrap, which opened at TRP on Monday as part of its 70th anniversary tour.

The estimate of the number who have seen the murder mystery and know its secrets likely runs to far more than 10 million - that is the estimate of how many people have seen it in London's West End alone.

A product of the brilliant mind of the world's best-ever selling writer, The Mousetrap first opened at the Theatre Royal Nottingham in October 1952.

It was a stage version of a 30-minute radio show written by Agatha Christie as a birthday present for Queen Mary, the consort of King George V, in May 1947.

The radio play was called Three Blind Mice, and that theme continues into the stage version, with the nursery rhyme somehow connected to the case.