Everyone loves a good murder mystery. Popularity of this genre has increased with Hollywood films such as Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, so it feels fitting that it comes to and is popular at the world of Ed Fringe.

As the title suggests, this production takes all the combos of the quintessential murder mystery, but puts the plot into our hands. Murder mystery meets improv – there are prompts and certain things in place to help, but with the help of the audience, how this actually transpires is completely unplanned. In our scenario, this is the case of the big sausage, set in a p*ss up in a brewery, which already gives us giggles and that typical British humour. There are often little innuendos and suggestions that continue the typical British humour in that wink wink nudge nudge kind of way.

The set itself is resplendent – very well made, featuring on quite a large stage with sold out seats. There’s a great sense of “Cluedo” with the chosen aesthetic and the monochrome colour choices – one character is all in yellow, one in green e.t.c. Our host has a essence of Miss Marple meets Jessica Fletcher, with slightly stereotyped and exaggerated elements in her dress and conduct. She has the power to stop and start and entice certain moments, with a tongue and cheek essence that clearly shows a great relationship and banter culture with her fellow actors by cheekily making things a little harder for them. Moments of corpsing comes from all of them; silly suggestions, recognition of Jessica Marple’s attempts to throw them, the comedy that comes from the minds of their colleagues as they improvise and, in this big space, this lets us warm to them and be part of their group.

Overall, Murder She Didn’t Write is a brilliantly and professionally constructed audience participatory improvisation show. It effortlessly links all the stereotypes of a murder mystery, engaging with us for prompts to continue the comedy and showing a real skill in creating a whodunnit on the spot.