Inspector Drake's Last Case

“Inspector Drake cases” by David Tristram are a series of Agatha Cristie’sque spoofs that are hidden gems amongst the comedy fraternity, at times almost farcical, plays. After the success of their last venture of ‘The Perfekt Crime’ Matchbox ventured into Drake’s ‘last case’. Let’s hope they backtrack and visit some of his earlier cases because this was a laugh out loud evening from the get go and never ceased until and after the final bows.

In a scene reminiscent of the old Dixon of Dock Green, the truly incompetent Sgt. Plod, tried to introduce the audience to what was to unfold by saying to believe no-one, nothing was as it seemed and even when the murder was discovered was it really as straight forward as that….
No truer words have been spoken in the history of drama…..

In a functional but simple set littered with visible clues it was up to the audience to solve the mystery (mainly because the truth of the matter was, if left to Inspector Drake and Sgt Plod brilliantly played by Lee Passmoor and Callum Cammeron respectively, we were in deep trouble.)

With a Gardener called Mr Cook (Grahame Forster), a Cook called Mrs Gardener (Jan Forster), a Butler called Mr Guest (Alex Morris) and a Guest called Mr Butler (Phil Martin) the scene was set for the confusion that was to follow. The murdered lady’s son Victor Gagarin (Malcolm Quinn) was having an affair with the murdered woman’s business partner Mrs Duck (Annette Morris) and who was the mysterious cleaning lady played by Lucy McCabe.

In a plot that often resembled the dialogue from the old ‘Airplane’ films, Inspector Drake stumbled through a cast of suspects without cracking a smile (almost) – although there was a couple of moments of dialogue that had the actors turning upstage whilst they regathered their equanimity much to the audience’s mirth.

When we saw in flashback what had really occurred in the murder of Mrs Gagarin (Jean Ord) the audience could leave the auditorium fully sated in the explanation – or were they just as confused as everyone else????

With a couple of walk-on parts of Libby Martin and Sheila Quinn as paramedics making up the cast this was a rip-roaring laugh fest from start to finish – can we have more of Inspector Drake please….

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