The Mousetrap: This is how you can see Agatha Christie's famous play on its 70th anniversary tour in Yorkshire

The last tram ran in London, television programmes ended at 10.30pm and the entire TV listings occupied only three-and-a-half lines. Following the 1952 premiere touring production, The Mousetrap opened in the West End where it it continues its record-breaking residency at St Martin’s having been performed there over 28,500 times, selling over 10 million tickets. It opened the year Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne; its 10th anniversary was the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis; it marked its 20th birthday in the year of Watergate, and the Falklands War was going on when it turned 30.

For a work that became the longest-running play in British theatre history in 1957 and has continued to be staged ever since – except for an enforced break during the pandemic – the question has to be… how? How is this play, which Christie initially wrote as a radio play for the BBC called Three Blind Mice to honour the 80th birthday of Queen Mary, wife of George V, still packing the audiences in? The world has changed beyond recognition but The Mousetrap endures. Current producer Adam Spiegel says the secret of its staying power is one of the questions he is asked most often. “I don’t have a very satisfying answer,” he says. “It’s really weird that a play has been on for 70 years. There are plays that don’t make seven days. Seventy years is astonishing. There isn’t a precise scientific reason for it.”

To mark the milestone, it is being performed in 70 theatres, including York Grand Opera House (March 6 to 11). “What better way to celebrate 70 glorious years of The Mousetrap by taking Agatha Christie’s world-famous whodunnit to over 70 towns and cities throughout the UK and Ireland. This beloved tale of intrigue and suspense is as enthralling today as it was when it first opened in 1952 and I am thrilled that audiences, of all ages, and from all corners of the country, will have the chance to see it in their local theatres,” says Spiegel.

Christie gave her grandson Mathew Prichard the royalties from The Mousetrap for his ninth birthday. In recent years he has donated them to the benefit of charities for the arts and other causes especially in Wales. “It is by now well-known that she gave me The Mousetrap for my ninth birthday,” says Prichard, who is now chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd. “I do not, I’m afraid, remember much about the actual presentation – if there was one – and probably nobody realised until much later what a marvellous present it was, but it is perhaps worth remembering that my grandmother had been through many times in her life when money was not plentiful. It was therefore incredibly generous of her to give away such a play to her grandson, as in 1952 her books were only approaching the enormous success they have now become. It is also a mistake to think of her generosity only in terms of money.

"She loved giving pleasure to others – good food, a holiday, a present, or a birthday ode. She loved enjoying herself, and also to see others around her enjoying themselves.”

Todd Carty (he of Grange Hill and EastEnders fame) plays Major Metcalf in the anniversary tour. “I saw it about 40 years ago, when I was a much younger man, and when I got the call ‘Would you like to be in The Mousetrap?’ I didn’t hesitate. I remembered it being such a great play and I’ve always been an Agatha Christie fan, having first gotten hooked on her storytelling by seeing the Margaret Rutherford/Miss Marple films on TV. Now here I am 40 years later playing Major Metcalf in the UK and Ireland tour. It’s fantastic.”

Like many, Carty is at a loss to explain the longevity of The Mousetrap. “That’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it? I think basically we all like a whodunnit because we’re all amateur detectives, we’re all modern day Columbos. I’ve been to see the show again recently and in the audience there are kids of 13 right up to grandmas and granddads, all going ‘He did it’ or ‘No, it was her or him’. When I first saw it I couldn’t quite work it out myself but it’s great fun trying to figure out who the killer is.”

The premise is nothing unusual in the world of the whodunnit. As news spreads of a murder in London, a group of seven strangers find themselves snowed in at Monkswell Manor, a stately countryside guesthouse. When a police sergeant arrives, the guests discover to their horror that a killer is in their midst. One by one, the suspicious characters reveal their sordid pasts. Which one is the murderer? Who will be their next victim?

The answer to its success may lie in the affection we have for Christie – the original national treasure. Born in Torquay in 1890, Christie became, and remains, the best-selling novelist of all time. At the age of 11, her father, not well since the advent of financial difficulties, died after a series of heart attacks. By the age of 18, she was amusing herself with writing short stories, some of which were published in much revised form in the 1930s. In 1912 she met Archie Christie and they married on Christmas Eve 1914. It was during the First World War that Christie turned to writing detective stories – and Hercule Poirot was born. Following the war she continued to write, experimenting with different types of thriller and murder mystery stories, creating first Tommy and Tuppence and then Miss Marple in quick succession.

Yorkshire plays its own part in her story. In 1926 Christie disappeared for 11 days following the break-up of her marriage to Archie. Her disappearance fascinated the public and made the national press. She was eventually discovered staying in the Old Swan in Harrogate.

www.atgtckets.com/york