Amateur detectives in Bovingdon will have the chance to pit their wits against Sherlock Holmes at a "murder mystery evening" next week.

The Bovingdon Players will be putting on "Aint You Got No ‘Holmes’ To Go To" at Bovingdon Memorial Hall, High Street on Friday and Saturday.

Audience members are invited to try and solve the murder of Lord Winchester Longshot while Robert Peacock, as Sherlock Holmes, will be doing the same.

Roddy Shand will be playing Dr Watson in the show and he will be interacting with the audience throughout the performance - highlighting important clues and indicating what is going to happen next.

Iain King, director of "Aint You Got No ‘Holmes’ To Go To" explained that the audience will watch Sherlock Holmes quizzing all the suspects and each table will then be asked to say how they think Lord Longshot was killed.

He said: "At the end of everything, all the tables basically say who they think did it, how they did it and what their motivations were.

"Then we will play out the final scene and see who the murderer was and the team who is closest will win the prize."

During rehearsals, one of the actresses was diagnosed with pneumonia and the Bovingdon Players had to find another actress during production.

Mr King said: "We are all quite close - she is a good friend of ours so it was very upsetting.

"Luckily, she is on the mend now, so it is all turning bright in the end."

The event at Bovingdon Memorial Hall will see enough space for more than 80 people and villagers are allowed to bring a picnic dinner.

Organisers said that, so far, three quarters of the tickets have been sold for Saturday night and half of the tickets for the Friday event were now booked.

Mr King explained that the amateur theatre group had not produced a murder mystery evening in a long time and said that now was the right time-before the World Cup.

He added:"We have not done one for a few years so we decided it was about time we re-started it.

"We wanted to do it before the World Cup started because it is very hard to get people out of the house once the World Cup has started."