A time for murder

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

- WORDS: STEVEN 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 the three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic novel The Seven Dials Mystery.

"I broke my foot," confesses the 28-year-old actress. "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