HOW very smug we felt after our conversation during the interval. My companion and I had gone through our list of suspects and reckoned we’d got our killer bang to rights.

The trouble was that we’d casually overlooked one thing… Agatha Christie’s genius at weaving a plot that’s all but impenetrable.

The Agatha Christie Theatre Company’s annual visit to Malvern is now an institution and this work by the great crime writer did not disappoint.

We know that someone will always die. Yet there is something rather cosy – comforting even – regarding modes of murder that probably never really existed and most certainly don’t in today’s climate of gun and knife savagery.

The main action takes place in a courtroom dominated by the truly stupendous Sir Wilfrid Robarts, played with great gusto by Denis Lill.

Lisa Kay injects gallons of venom into her Romaine Vole role and it’s not long before we feel sorry for Ben Nealon as her hapless husband Leonard, accused of killing an old woman for her money.

Presiding over all this like an Olympian god is Mr Justice Wainwright, given great gravitas by Peter Byrne, who’s certainly climbed the promotional ladder since his days as DI Andy Crawford down at TV’s Dock Green nick.

Meanwhile, former teen idol Mark Wynter, as Mr Myers QC, shows that he can see straight through the latter day Venus in blue jeans standing before him in the witness box.

But it was a typical Christie red herring that threw us and for that we must thank Jennifer Wilson as home help Janet McKenzie… say no more.

Witness for the Prosecution runs until Saturday, May 22.