IN the age of the mobile phone, a play that hinges on a targeted murder victim having to answer a wired in landline seems a throwback to a different time.

That is pretty much what Dial M for Murder is, although it is none the poorer for that, as it evokes a sense of a pre-rock and roll 1950s upper middle class England.

Frederick Knott's thriller is not so much a whodunit, as we see former tennis star, Tony Wendice (Steven Pinder) map out in painstaking detail how his wife, Sheila (Joy Brook) is to be killed, as a will it, won't it happen.

There is no such thing as the perfect murder, however, as, fate would have it, the character of Max Halliday (Richard Grieve), a murder thriller writer himself, flags up.

This is not enough to deter Tony Wendice, however, as he blackmails the, at first, unwilling Captain Lesgate, who has a chequered history, into executing his devious plan as an eventually more than willing accomplice, motivated by money.

There are solid performances all round by the Middle Ground Theatre Company cast members, including some droll comic relief from Michael Lunney, who doubles up as police inspector Hubbard, as well as directing.

Dial M for Murder runs until this Saturday.

Review by Peter McMillan