Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Situation Murder - comedy to die for

Here's a treat from the bottom drawer that I'd totally forgotten about - Situation Murder.



In 2004, after The Sitcom Trials had done its last Edinburgh Fringe run and was noticeably failing to get a second series, I devised a different show, a series of murder mystery comedies where the audience would interrogate the cast and try and solve a crime. It has two regular characters hosting the story every episode, and a new cast of characters every time.

Now collected up in a book, available on Amazon Kindle (or iPod, iPad etc), are 5 full scripts, complete with the briefing notes given to all the cast members so the reader could, if they wished, stage these murder mysteries for fun or profit.

Of course what I'd really "invented" was the 1970s ITV series Whodunnit, which had itself been reimagined in the 80s as Cleudo. All I'd done was make it funny. And rereading these scripts they really are jolly good fun.

• A celebrity chef on a reality TV show is murdered by a fellow celebrity – but who?
• A death metal rocker is found hung on the back of the dressing room door – by whom?
• Three strangers meet in the airport car park, which one has blood on their hands?
• A body in the car park of a truck stop, but whose?
• The audience of a comedy show join in a seance to solve a murder, but why?

If you're in the slightest bit intrigued, dear reader, you can download a free sample. And by all means upload a review, or how about buying the book. By golly it's worth it.

Oh, and if I've not mentioned it, The Sitcom Trials itself returns to Bristol in March and, if you want, you can enter a script. Details over on the Sitcom Trials website.

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