Dial M for Murder, Frederick Knott’s thriller, most famously interpreted by Alfred Hitchcock with the brooding Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, is revived with all its sinister suspense and tension still in tact. The revolving set of the Maida Vale flat belonging to retired professional tennis player, Tony Wendice, and his rich and slightly vacuous wife immediately conveys the feeling of impending menace, all is furnished in red and black and scenes change imperceptibly by the swishing of a circular curtain with shadowy figures passing in and out. Mic Pool’s sound system completes the atmosphere, haunting snatches of jazz, and the old fashioned “brrrr, brrrr”, ring of the telephone.

Richard Lintern plays Tony Wendice with suave brand of menace and looks thoroughly capable of planning to murder his wife, Sheila, played by Aislin McGuckin, whom he later admits he only married for her money. Aislin McGuckin is the epitome of the 1950s wife, slim and glamorously dressed but obviously bored as she has been conducting an affair with Max (Nick Fletcher), a thriller writer recently returned from New York.

The fateful call is made to an old school friend of Tony’s, a small time fraudster trading under many aliases, played with shifty panache by Daniel Hill. Will he fulfil the contract? Or will Tony’s evil plot fail? Inevitably an Inspector calls in the shape of Inspector Hubbard played by Des McAleer with the plodding persistence of a 1950s policeman whose only aids to crime detection were a keen mind and methodical examination of the facts, rather than fancy forensic findings.

Dial M for Murder’s revival shows that a gripping story, with the production polished up and finely acted, never goes out of fashion even if the subject is dated. We were on the edge of our seats and disappointed when the interval came to interrupt the action. The cast most deservingly got huge applause at the end for what was a very fine performance.

Jacquie Vowles