The Poisoned Chocolates Case
Anthony Berkeley
14 January 1984
When Joan Bendix makes a bet with her husband for a box of chocolates, no one imagines that winning will cost her her life. The seven she eats poison her and the two her husband eats nearly kill him. The Sheringham Crime Circle find the unusual case baffling, but eventually come up with some very interesting theories - which they then proceed to disprove one by one. Due to a series of false clues the identity - and motive - of the killer appears to be out of reach...
Set in 1920s London in which a group of armchair detectives, who have founded the "Crimes Circle", formulate theories on a recent murder case Scotland Yard has been unable to solve. Each of the six members, including their president, Berkeley's amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, arrives at an altogether different solution as to the motive and the identity of the perpetrator, and also applies different methods of detection (basically deductive or inductive or a combination of both). Completely devoid of brutality but containing a lot of subtle, tongue-in-cheek humour instead, "The Poisoned Chocolates Case" is one of the classic whodunnits of the so-called Golden Age of detective fiction. As at least six plausible explanations of what really happened are put forward one after the other, the audience -- just like the members of the Crimes Circle themselves -- are kept guessing up to the end of the play, when the least likely suspect is revealed as the murderer.
Dramatised by Neville Teller from Anthony Berkeley's best-known detective novel "The Poisoned Chocolates Case", first published in 1929.
With Neil Stacy [Roger Sheringham], Conrad Philips [Sir Charles Wildeman, K.C.], Hilda Schroeder [Mrs. Felda Fleming], Geoffrey Collins [Morton Harrowgate Bradley], Jane Wenham [Alicia Damers], Michael Bilton [Mr. Chiterwick], Victor Winding [Chief Inspector Moresby of Scotland Yard], William Eedle [Lockwood / The Receptionist], Mark Straker [Graham Bendix / Mr. Barker, Sir Eustace's Valet], Clive Panto [Sir Eustace Pennefather], Deborah Cranston [Marguerite], and Eileen Tully [Joan Bendix].
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Directed by Brian Miller in Bristol
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