Witness for the Prosecution is set in London in 1953. Much has changed since then but much has remained the same. Which may be why this is still such a gripping story from Agatha Christie. Its action shifts between a QC’s chambers and the Old Bailey as the trial in connection with the murder of a wealthy old lady reveals past tragedies as well as present prejudices.

The fine double set by Simon Scullion is the first thing to catch the audience’s eye. It is all dark wood and dusty light. Courtroom dramas place the audience in the jury’s place, only we in the theatre have the advantage of peeping behind the court into the lawyers’ offices to discover things which do not always come out in the witness box. Instinctive reactions – first impressions – are not always the best.

You may well know the story, from the Billy Wilder 1957 film version if not from a live production. The accused man, Leonard Vole, is reliant on his wife for an alibi when charged with murder. She has every thing to lose if she denies this to him, labouring as she does under the double disadvantage of being German (remember this was set in 1953) and older than he is. His barrister knows that there is much evidence against his client, but surely this is all merely circumstantial?

Director Joe Harmston has assembled a very strong cast for this production. The contrasted lawyers were all excellent – Denis Lill as the no-nonsense Sir Wilfrid, Robert Duncan as the instructing solicitor Mr Mayhew, Mark Wynter (former pop singer with hits such as Venus in Blue Jeans) as the fidgety prosecuting counsel and Peter Byrne (Andy Crawford in Dixon of Dock Green) as the judge with a nice line in bon mots.

Elizabeth Power had great fun with the pernickety Scottish housekeeper Janet McKenzie, over-egging her pudding of testimony to considerable effect. But the core of the play was Vole’s wife Romaine. From her first entrance Hannah Redfern, as precise in economical movement as in careful enunciation of an alien language, is the still, hard centre around which the tension builds. It was a very fine performance which uses the audience’s initial hostility to turn the emotional screw to its breaking point for the play’s climax.

A very fine production, from the Bill Kenwirght stable. As a fan of Agatha Christie whodunits I was captivated from start to finish.