EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SOLVE ALONG A MURDER SHE WROTE, TheSpace @ Symposium Hall - Amphitheatre

Full disclosure: I saw Solve Along A Murder She Wrote in London a number of years ago. As soon as I saw it was on at the Fringe I elbowed my way through the other BW reviewers, pushed a couple of them over, stepping over their bodies, shocked looks on their faces ignored, just so I could get to the front of the queue and see this show again. And it did not disappoint. 

It turns out I didn't remember much from that London show (it was pre-Covid, and therefore during a time that seems like the hazy past - nebulous and strange; a time of myth and legend). But I did remember how it made me feel: unadulterated joy.

That feeling returned with gay abandon at the Fringe as Tim Benzie, the Jessica Fletcher obsessed star of the show, took to the stage dressed as Jessica as she goes for a jog in the opening credits of Murder, She Wrote. The famous plinky-plonky piano begins and we are back in the world of Cabot Cove, of Jessica's thousands of nieces and nephews, terrible accents, camp acting and suspicious behaviour. 

During the next one hour and twenty minutes you then watch an entire episode of Murder, She Wrote. "But that's only 47 minutes long!" I hear you say. And, "Can't I do that at home anyway?" Yes, you can. But not like this. Tim takes you through his patented "Fame-o-meter" to help you decide who were the most famous guest stars in the 1980s, when it was originally filmed. This systems helps you decide who the murderer might actually be. And then of course there's the "Suspici-o-meter" where the cagey behaviour of each of the characters gets rated throughout the screening. 

There's audience participation, costume changes, jokes about the accents, the blatant ridiculous nature of the show that ran for twelve seasons and had four TV Movies and brought Angela Lansbury further into the hearts of so many of us. 

All of the joshing is done with complete and utter love and adoration for Jessica Fletcher and her incredible life as a retired teacher/world famous crime writer/sleuth who solves murders everywhere she goes. 

I love Solve Along A Murder She Wrote. I'd go again in a heartbeat. I urge you to do the same as soon as you can. 

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