Getting down to The Business of Murder on the Eastbourne stage

It’s 1981. We have a detective, a playwright and a man who's brought them together. But nothing is as it seems.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.

00:06Lovely to speak to John Goodrum now.

00:08John, you are on your way to Eastbourne with a cracking play, aren't you?

00:12A classic from the 80s.

00:14It's The Business of Murder.

00:16It's going to be at the Denyshire Park, April 30th to May 3rd.

00:21What have you got in store for us?

00:23Just set the scene then.

00:24Oh, it's a classic thriller by Richard Harris, who is one of the best thriller writers.

00:32And as you say, set in the early 80s, all revolving around a rather mysterious man called Mr. Stone,

00:39who is weaving a very strange web of intrigue around a policeman, which is my character,

00:47detective inspector John Hallett, a bit of a rough diamond, a bit of a John Thorne from the Sweeney,

00:56and a young lady writer of detective series on the television, Dee Redmond, her name is.

01:08He involves them both in his rather weird world, and neither of us know quite what he's trying to get at until...

01:15And he's possibly not telling the truth, then?

01:18He might not be telling the truth, no.

01:20He's got various stories that he uses to get the other two characters involved,

01:25and it turns out that they actually know each other, and the whole thing gets terribly involved.

01:33But light-hearted, you were saying.

01:34Light-hearted, yes. Yes, there's a lot of humour in it, in that sort of, yeah, Richard Harris way,

01:41because Richard Harris wrote lots of lovely comedies as well, Outside Edge and Stepping Out and those lovely things.

01:48So the comedy filters through, then?

01:50Comedy definitely comes through.

01:52And Karen Henson, who, no nepotism here, who is my wife, who is directing the production,

01:58who runs her thriller season at Nottingham Theatre Royal in the summer.

02:04Richard is always trying to get her to do one of his thrillers called Death in High Heels.

02:10We've never quite done that one yet, but I think we should do that one sometime.

02:14It sounds like it comes with its own challenges, doesn't it?

02:16I think it probably would, yes.

02:18Mind you, playing Dame at Christmas a lot, I'm used to the high heels, but that's no worry.

02:23This is very different.

02:25Absolutely.

02:25Well, it sounds great fun.

02:27It's in Eastbourne before long.

02:28John, lovely to speak to you.

02:30Thank you very much.

02:30And you too, Phil.