Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote ★★★★★

They say if you have a good idea, then run with it. Well, Tim Benzie had a great idea – and he’s jogged with it around the world. In a grey jogging suit, waving in the style of La Lansbury. Taking the cosy crime TV sensation of Murder She Wrote and transforming it into a camp evening where the audience attempt to solve the murder of a particular episode while Benzie whips up some killer laughs.

It’s profoundly silly but has deep affection for the show that it’s sending up. And Murder She Wrote is a glorious target for ribbing. Over the 12-year run, Google tells us that approximately 64 murders happened in the sleepy coastal town of Cabot Cove. That’s an average of 5.3 murders per year. That’s worse than a warzone! And the slaughter didn’t end there. There were 286 victims across 264 episodes and, not to be controversial, isn’t it just a tad suspicious that crime novelist and homicidal maniac Jessica Fletcher just happened to be around for all of them? Eh? EH? But I digress…

This year’s episode to solve along to is Season 2, Episode 20…”Menace, Anyone?” If you haven’t worked out that leaden pun, the tennis circuit is the hook on which the writers have hung this mystery. Skip this paragraph as the plot is incoming: A tennis star is killed by dynamite planted in his girlfriend’s car, and the evidence points towards the girlfriend…or maybe her sister, except the sister has inconveniently died in a plane crash. Time to get solving!

Benzie leads you through an interactive viewing of the episode with the help of various devices. The “Fameometer” tests the myth that the most famous guest star did the dastardly deed. The “Suspiciometer” keeps track of the audience scrutiny of the suspects as the episode unfolds. He absolutely strikes the right balance of letting the episode play out and pausing for some bon mots about what the audience has just watched or what they are about to see. He neatly dodges the ‘try-hard’ trap, knowing exactly when to let Menace, Anyone? play out and when to press pause for some wry commentary.

You instantly feel in safe hands with your Aussie host – even when he gently questions a volunteer over her line delivery of a draft script: “Sounds like you didn’t give a shit about the old bastard?”

As befitting a good murder-mystery, there is no way that The Recs will reveal Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote secrets. But rest assured you are guaranteed to forget your worries, have a deliciously dappy evening, possibly question why there weren’t any gay characters in the entire 264-episode series’ run, and bask in Angela Lansbury’s glorious third career cycle. Whodunnit? Tim Benzie, brilliantly!