STAGE REVIEW: Night Must Fall - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Tuesday, October 4 to Saturday, October 8, 2016.

DELICIOUSLY refreshing, just like a perfectly brewed cup of tea.

It looked good, tasted good and, continually gripping and entertaining, it definitely hit the spot.

Admittedly whodunnits of this genre may be a little old hat these days, and although this might be showing the odd twinge of pain with age it nevertheless manages to oil away the occasional creak due largely to its excellent cast.

Emlyn Williams’ psychological thriller is set in the 1930s and follows the theme so eruditely expressed by the author on so many occasions, both in fiction and fact, that the human race has - in general - a fatal fascination with the darker side of crime and those who commit terrible acts such as murder.

There are plenty of dark moments here too, threaded into numerous humorous exchanges, such as when a hand is found in the rubbish dump of a cantankerous old dowager’s country home, and there’s also a red herring here and there as a sop to slightly throw the audience off the scent just when they feel they might have nailed the guilty party…

Considering all the action takes place in the sitting room of Forest Corner, Mrs Bramson’s bungalow in a quiet corner of Essex, and what an excellent set it is, the audience is still able to relate to the surrounding and forbidding forest, a big but remote hotel nearby and the menace that a criminal is out there somewhere - or maybe in the midst of the household!

This is one of theatre’s classics and the cast do it justice with several fine performances.

Gwen Taylor delights, as per usual, as the acidic and crotchety Mrs Bramson, Will Featherstone brilliantly portrays the apparently unhinged yet ingratiating and oily charmer Dan, Niamh McGrady also shines as a subdued yet simmering Olivia and Mandi Symond’s chatterbox housekeeper, Mrs Terence, is a joy. But what a scene stealer is Daragh O’Malley with his mellifluous Irish brogue providing a splendid Inspector Belsize. What a great voice.

Dark and brooding, with all not what it seems, Night Must Fall is one of those outstanding drama’s that is so well written it splendidly shifts its audience along the road of suspicion and suspense from start to finish.