THE Mill at Sonning is adept at providing the very best in classic stagings from our most famous playwrights, but Agatha Christie's Spider's Webb is right up there as one of the best nights out you can have, writes Paul Thomas.

This comic thriller's main driving force is fun and has a sophisticated wit that underpins Christie's ability to make murder most enjoyable.

Add in that it is being directed by national treasure Brian Blessed and you have a winning formula.

Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, wife of a diplomat, is adept at spinning tales of adventure, but when a murder takes place in her drawing room she finds live drama much harder to cope with. Desperate to dispose of the body before her husband arrives with an important politician, she enlists the help of her guests. Hilarity ensues when they are interrupted by the arrival of wry detective, Inspector Lord.

This this a conscious parody of the detective thriller, Christie delivers a unique blend of suspense and humour. There is tension and laughter in equal parts in an intricate plot of murder, police, drug addicts, invisible ink, hidden doorways and secret drawers.

There are no spoiler alerts in this review....that would be too difficult given the twists and turns in this complex web of merry-go-round murder.

Blessed weaves a wonderful reminiscence of the 50s when this play was first brought to the stage and Blessed met Christie.

Melanie Gutteridge as Clarissa, the hostess with an imagination, holds the plot together well, as she surrounds herself with those who are brought into the deceit.

Noel White as Inspector Lord puts in a typical Christie-esque performance with all the trimmings, while Clarissa's three cohorts Sir Rowland Delahaye (George Telfer), Hugo Birch (Eric Carte) and Jeremy Warrender (Luke Barton) are spot on as the supposed sidekicks with far more up their sleeves than once thought.

You have, of course the dodgy butler Elgin (Tim Faulkner) with Alexander Neal playing both the murdered blackmailer Oliver Costello and the reliable copper Constable Jones it is left to schoolgirl Pippa Hailsham-Brown (Esme Seber) to both drive and twist the plot with her neurosis and cheap book of spells.

However, for my money Joanna Brookes as the mysterious gardener Mildred Peake was magnificent and really deserves the plaudits...eccentric in the Margaret Rutherford style, gung-ho and jolly hockey sticks...you just don't get them like that any more.

Nostalgic, witty, funny, and entertaining, this is a delight and a triumph - British theatre at its very best.

And with the two-course meal option before the show as you sit beside the Thames first for supper, then in a delightful in-the-round 215-seater theatre in this glorious riverside village, what could be a better summer sizzler?

Spider's Web is now showing until September 9.

The Mill at Sonning, Box ffice: 0118 969 8000.

The Mill's next production is Robin Hawdon's Perfect Wedding from September 28.