A GRIPPING thriller performed as a radio play has graced the Theatre Royal Windsor stage this week.

Featuring Death in Paradise star Kris Marshall and his wife Sally Bretton, from BBC’s Not Going Out, the cast and crew presented Agatha Christie’s classic play, The Unexpected Guest.

Joining the pair included Robert Duncan, Jeffrey Harmer, Rosie Thomson, Marti Webb, Joe Tracini and Martin Carroll. 

The story follows Michael Starwedder, whose car breaks down on a foggy evening.

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But when Michael seeks assistance in a nearby country house, he enters to find the dead body of Richard Warwick, and Warwick’s wife Laura holding a gun.

Not convinced it was Laura who did it, Michael assists her in coming up with an alibi.

A radio drama is a performance with little or no visual components, and solely relies on the dialogue, music and sound effects.

And foley artist Martin Carroll does a sterling job at perfectly timing each sound effect throughout the play.

He does it in such a slick way, but it was almost a shame there were a lot less sound effects for him to play with during the second half of the play.

Joe Trancini, who played Jan Warwick, entertained the crowd from start to finish with his high energy on stage.

Every scene his character was in got a wave of laughter throughout the audience as he delivered his lines with wit and confidence.

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Both Trancini and Marshall lifted their words off the page and there were times where if you closed your eyes, you felt as if you were there in the thick of all the action.

Following recent successes at Theatre Royal Windsor of productions Murder On Air, Brief Encounter on Air, and Mystery On Air, the season is back this year with lots of famous faces.

The next three plays coming up include A Thousand Clowns, starring Will Young, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Jenny Seagrove and Christopher Biggins.

Visit Theatre Royal Windsor to find out more or to book tickets.