Carry On star Anita Harris rolls back the years in Rehearsal For Murder

ANITA HARRIS has been rolling back the years while touring in Rehearsal For Murder.

The multi-talented entertainer, who recently celebrated her 74th birthday, has fellow 60s chart-topper Mark Wynter as a co-star in the murder mystery.

And Anita says: “We’ve known each other since we were 17.

“We were co-stars in Annie 10 years ago — he was Daddy Warbucks and I was horrible Miss Hannigan — but we go ’way back in the music world.

“Our agents were close — I’m talking at the beginning of our careers — and in those days, an artist would go to a music publishers to find a song, and we’d often link up.

“We’ve had a couple of chats about those days.

“Before I met my husband Mike, who produced all my records, bless him, my very first agent was John Barry’s agent, so I started working with the John Barry Seven.

“We were talking about him and the artists of those days and it was lovely, and to be together again is really a comfort zone.

“Mind you, back in those days, who’d have thought we’d be there, 50 years later, performing in a thriller in Shrewsbury!”

You read the title Rehearsal For Murder and instantly think “Agatha Christie” and sit there waiting for a character to say: “There’s just one thing I don’t understand, inspector,” but you’d be barking up the wrong crime author.

“It’s by Levinson and Link, who wrote Murder, She Wrote and Columbo, so it’s got a good pedigree,” says Anita.

“It’s based on a play within a play, which gives us an added tingle as actors.

“You have to dedicate all your energy to concentrate as it is rather convoluted, which the audience enjoys, trying to work it out and it’s got a lovely twist at the end as well.

“Alex Ferns plays a playwright and his beautiful fiancee dies, seemingly by suicide, and the whole idea behind the play he writes is to find out was she murdered?

“Everybody on that stage is worried that they are being thought of as the killer.

“It is quite Christie-esque in that sense, in that you gather a group of people together and one of them is the murderer.

“The writers wrote so much for Angela Lansbury, who’s British, and maybe they got hold of that whole magic that happens with Agatha Christie?

“Obviously, originally it was set in America, but we’ve Anglicised it and it’s now set in a theatre somewhere in Great Britain. We Brits just love whodunits, don’t we?

“That’s why Bill Kenwright has put together the Classic Thriller Theatre Company, to put on productions like this.

“Bill just has a way of understanding the British public, probably because of his own background as an actor before becoming a producer.

“And he always seems to get together a great group of actors who just blend well together.

“I’ve done so many ‘Aggies’ — Verdict, The Unexpected Guest — that you become very aware that the British audiences really, really love to sit there and try and work it out, enjoying the intrigue.

“This has a lot of that in it, and why not?

“I play the lady producer of the play within the play, Bella Lamb, and she’s really rather fond of this playwright.

“She loves what he writes and wants to help him in his career, so she backs him to the tune of quite a lot of dosh.

“And although this is a murder mystery, there are some beautiful, tender scenes, so you have that lovely roller coaster wondering why he’s so desperately trying to find out what really happened to his beautiful Monica.

“That fondness came quite easily because I toured with Alex a few years ago in Strangers On A Train, in which I played his mother.

“It’s a very definite ensemble piece, every single character is really important to get the story across, and it’s great that we have a lot of television faces with Alex Ferns, Gary Mavers, Lauren Drummond from Holby City, Susie Amy and Ben Nealon from Soldier Soldier.”

With a couple of soap legends, audiences might make assumptions about the characters they’re playing based on their previous incarnations.

Alex Ferns, for example, was Britain’s most-hated man when he played EastEnders super-villain Trevor Morgan while Gary Mavers was such a lovely chap in Peak Practice.

“Come and see it!” is all Anita will say.

Rehearsal For Murder is currently touring the UK. For tickets visit www.atgtickets.com

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