A TIME FOR MURDER

The clock is ticking for a young sleuth and a veteran detective in star-studded adaptation Agatha Christie's Seven Dials

- TEVEN MURPHY

When Mia McKenna-Bruce was offered the chance to play spirited young detective Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent alongside Martin Freeman's Superintendent Battle, she jumped at the chance. But she wasn't jumping for long, because disaster was to strike halfway through production of Agatha Christie’s classic novel The Seven Dials Mystery.

“And I'd love to say it was from some action stuff that I did, like driving or running around or even doing the Charleston. But I just tripped over a carpet during a scene walking out of a room!”

Mia was left to complete the final six weeks of filming in a fracture boot on doctor's orders. However, in a stroke of luck, producers were able to call in her makeup artist sister Ellis to work as her body double.

“They said, ‘Do you have a secret twin we don’t know about?’ and I was like, ‘Well, me and my sister are very alike,’” Mia laughs. “She was petrified so I assured her she wouldn't have to act —then the first day they told her she had to learn the Charleston. She was actually really good. I was like, ‘Oh no, she'll be coming for me!’”

The mystery begins when a young man, Gerry Wade (played by My Oxford Year star Corey Mylchreest), is found dead at Bundle’s family pile the morning after a glamorous society party. At first, it seems a practical joke played by Gerry's Foreign Office colleagues has gone horribly wrong. However, Bundle, who was set to pledge her future to Gerry, has trouble accepting the explanation.