Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web, now playing at the Mill at Sonning, is unusual in that it reveals the Queen of Crime’s undoubted talent for comedy, writes Carol Evans.

It contains all the elements of her typical whodunnit - the country house drawing room, posh cut-glass accents, red herrings, lies, deception and, of course, a dead body - but blatant, laugh-out-loud humour too.

And with expert use of pace, timing and body language, director Brian Blessed’s outstanding cast drew out every nuance of mirth. A concealed doorway into a hidden room, a secret drawer plus a knight standing sentry in a revolving niche all added to the comic potential of this very entertaining play.

Diplomat’s wife Clarissa, a playful lady with a penchant for making up tall stories for fun, wonders what she would do if she found a dead body in her drawing room. When the inevitable happens, she enlists the (unwilling) help of her three guests to dispose of the body. Then, when a police inspector turns up out of the blue following an anonymous tip off, she invents a tangled web of conflicting tales, enough even to put herself in frame for the murder. Melanie Gutteridge is very convincing as the vivacious and animated Clarissa.

An array of characters, seemingly with stories to hide, keep Noel White’s increasingly baffled Inspector Long and his wonderful eye-rolling uniformed sidekick Constable Jones (Alexander Neal) - guessing. Why did butler Elgin (Tim Faulkner) forge references to get his job and did he and his wife actually go to the pictures on the night of the murder? Why is gardener Mrs Peake, a hale, hearty and backslapping Joanna Brookes, so interested in the antique desk?

Good performances from George Telfer as her charming and honourable godfather Sir Rowland Delahaye, Eric Carte, an anxious Hugo Birch and Luke Barton as public school-educated Jeremy Warrender.

This was actor Brian Blessed’s second and (in this reviewer’s opinion) far superior directing foray into the Christie canon at the Mill. His use of the Dick Tracy theme in both now begs the question: is that a motif for future forays? If they are as good as this, let’s hope so.

The Spider’s Web runs until September 9. Tickets from www.millatsonning.com/whats-on