According to the programme, Verdict is probably Agatha Christie’s most complex and demanding play, marking the pinnacle of her work as a dramatist. While it is excellently written, produced and acted, it did leave me a little deflated at the end. Instead of an iconic good old whodunit romp with brain-teasing twists and turns, the murder takes place in full view and, instead of a tale of clever detection, there follows a morality saga about the foolishness of kindness.

The acting is good, make no bones about that, and with a cast of stars including Robert Duncan (Gus in Drop the Dead Donkey) as Professor Karl Hendryk, Cassie Raine (Kate Miller from Casualty) as his wife, Anya, and Susan Penhaligon (Pru in Bouquet of Barbed Wire) as his wife’s cousin, Lisa Koletsky, there is a wealth of theatrical talent on show.

Add to this the ever-present Peter Byrne (Sergeant Crawford in Dixon of Dock Green) and Mark Wynter (Sixties pop idol who had success with Venus in Blue Jeans) and you have the ingredients and acting pedigree for an excellent drama.

But this play does not tax the imagination. It does not leave you pondering who the killer is – we see that quite clearly at the end of the first act. Although there is a suitable twist in the plot that the murderer is killed in a road traffic accident shortly after the doing the deed and that the blame of suspicion shifts elsewhere, it is still not a gripping drama in the way that And Then There Were None and The Unexpected Guest (previous productions seen in Leeds from The Agatha Christie Theatre Company) have been in the past.

The one highlight of the production for me was Simon Scullion’s suitably shabby book-lined set – just the sort of living room you would expect to find in a university professor’s Bloomsbury flat.

Let’s hope we get back to a proper whodunit next year.