Apologies

I can't believe that a week has flown by since I last updated this blog. They are wonderful things, but it's so easy to forget about them and if you forget about them for too long, the readers forget about them too. So I hope you are still there, or this will be a complete waste of my time.

We have our first runthrough of the full play this evening and we have started to use props on a regular basis. Unfortunately we don't always have the right prop, so we have to make do a little. For instance, a harmonica for a cigarette lighter. And an inflatable sausage for a bomb. Seriously, I'm not making this up.

I'm afraid I had yet another run in with a certain member of the cast earlier in the week when she flounced in 20 minutes late for rehearsal without a care in the world. It was possibly a good job I got there first, as you could see Sylvia starting to boil. You can always tell when she's narked, because she starts going red in the face and becomes very, very quiet. At this point, it is usually wise to leave the room. As, in fact, Thelma did, for her own safety.

We were pleased to have our lady President, Dame Viv, with us at the last rehearsal in the role of prompt. We did need to call on her one or two times (not me, obviously, but one expects better from Audrey). David was a little worried after rehearsal about the amount of time Dame Viv was laughing because Murder At Checkmate Manor is not a comedy. Gordon says he went through the script with a fine tooth comb and found just four laughs.

Mrs Cavendish is having great fun trying to sort out the wardrobe and keeps interrupting us mid-flow to get us to go to another room to try on this, that and the other. Mind you, trying it on is something that comes easily to Gordon. I'm sure he kept trying to peep in; amazing the number of times he had to go to the loo while certain members of the cast were in their undies.