LEEDS Grand is hosting a play by the creators of classic TV crime series Murder She Wrote and Columbo.

Rehearsal For Murder, from the award-winning writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, is described as a classic whodunnit murder mystery.

Alex Ferns from Eastenders and Susie Amy from Footballers’ Wives join a cast of regulars from the Agatha Christie Theatre Company.

These include Gary Mavers, who played heartthrob doctorAndrew Attwood in more than 100 episodes of Peak Practice, before going on to Emmerdale, Casualty and Doctors.

Also in the cast are 60s pop legend Mark Wynters from musicals Dreamboats And Petticoats and The Phantom Of The Opera, Ben Nealon from Soldier Soldier, entertainment icon Anita Harris, Holby City’s Lauren Drummond, and Gwynfor Jones and Georgia Neville.

The Agatha Christie Theatre Company has been touring for the past 10 years, and was this year renamed the Classic Thriller Theatre Company in readiness for Rehearsal For Murder.

Playwright Alex Dennison is left heartbroken when his fiancée and leading lady Monica Welles is found dead from an apparent suicide after the opening night of her stage debut.

On the anniversary of that ill-fated night, Alex assembles the same cast and crew in the same theatre, for a reading of his new play.

But as the reading progresses, the play’s similarity to actual events becomes increasingly uncomfortable for the participants, and it becomes clear that Alex believes Monica was murdered and his new play is a devious cat-and-mouse chase to uncover her killer.

Rehearsal For Murder is at the Grand Theatre from July 4 to 9. Visit leedsgrandtheatre.com or call 0844 8482700 to book tickets.