Murder at the BIFTAS

(14 May 2010)

With a bit of ad-libbing and a mass of ham-acting by various brave members of staff, some very clever guests managed to piece together the many clues (mainly given on a plate by Stuart Kime, aka the flirty Ned Sherry) to discover ‘whodunnit’ at the Murder Mystery "Murder at the Biftas" held on April 24th, organised by the Friends of Durham School.

To aid concentration the audience enjoyed a fabulous 4-course dinner and plenty of liquid refreshment. Wonderful draw prizes included two free tickets to the Summer Moulin Rouge Ball, won by a delighted member of the audience, as well as other many great prizes of Murder Mystery games, good quality whisky, wines and gifts.

Poor Ken Marlow (aka Headmaster Martin George) deserved to be killed for overacting – one member of the audience did volunteer to give Cockney accent training if ever needed again, although anyone north of the Watford Gap thought it very convincing.

There were many suspects who would have liked him dead, of course, not least of all the above said Ned who owed Ken £500,000 for ‘nicking’ Ken’s hit song and taking royalties, the drunkard Ulrika Erikson (Bursar Ruth Gardner) who Ken dumped for the famous Westenders actress Babs Sandringham (Viv George), pregnant with Ken’s baby but seeming to be losing a hold on the philandering Ken to the young, glamorous Marilyn Codroe (PGCE student Hayley Cross). Marilyn’s pushy mother and agent Jocelyn Codroe (parent Ros Lyall)- always there to comfort with a glass of Chardonnay and a box of tissues – would have to remove anything in the way of her precious daughter’s career.

Sir John Feel-Good (played convincingly with the Shakespearean voice of Kim Jones) was desperate for (and possibly deserves) one more Bifta – by coincidence (or not) he was also in the room (alone) when the famous actor Thomas Olivier died mysteriously.

Marilyn who plays up to Ken to get the best parts was, however, in love with the phoney ‘American’ Peter Balk (PGCE student Matt Cook) who owes Ken millions in royalties and really wanted Ken out of the way. He was, in the end, caught out by various eagle eyed members of the audience as the one ‘who dunnit’!

The Baftas will never be watched in the same light again.

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Staff meetings
Monday, 06 September 2010

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