Teenagers, teachers and murder. Not your average day at secondary school. Or is it?

Certainly, Saturday 7th October saw it all happen at Humphrey Perkins School when the murder mystery ‘Taught a Lesson’, produced and directed by Helen Sadler entertained a hall-full of people. We all had a great time: good company, good food and good entertainment.

There was football-mad teenager, Sam (Dan Goulding) along with WAG-wannabe Ashley (Natalie Menzel). Could they have been the murderers? They both had opportunity and motive. But what about bookish Stephanie (Sue Booles) or bored teenager Toyah (Jackie Johnstone)? They all played their parts perfectly and had the audience laughing, even as we suspected them of the evil deed. Wait! Could a teacher or sweet school secretary be murderers? Miss Green, the English teacher (Sharon Gudger) and Mrs Carson (Val Gillings) certainly made us think it was a possibility – especially when they seemed to celebrate the death with an excess of wine! We didn’t forget the possibility of it being the rather shifty school caretaker, Mr Darling (Luke Menzel). All this was presided over by PC Foot (Neil Jones) with a little bit of help from his uncle Inspector Foot of the Yard (Craig Johnstone).

And who was the victim? Why the headteacher, Mr Peterson, (Matt Gudger) of course!

The audience was fed information (along with sandwiches and crisps) at different parts in the evening and our job was to say who ‘dunnit’ and why. As usual, my table failed but some clever people on other tables came up with the right answer. We didn’t mind because we’d had a really enjoyable evening.

Humphrey Perkins is no longer the community school it once was and, as an academy linked to other Leicestershire schools, it doesn’t offer the community facilities it used to. The Murder Mystery team is therefore doubly thankful to the commercial sponsors without whom the entertaining evening would not have happened: Charnwood Brewery, Paul Bott builder, SJS Carpet Cleaners, Navigation Inn and the village Co-op. Artists Chris Bates and Stewart Pawley donated paintings for the raffle.

As with all plays, it’s not just the acting team who make it happen but a whole host of other important people: Ceri Fairbrother, Ron Laver, Tom Smith (crew); Sharon Gudger, Ginnie Willcocks, Mark Sadler, Perin Towlson (catering); Neil Jones, Craig Johnstone (promotional material); Sharon Gudger (ticket sales); Perin Towlson, Tess Kay, Vera Williams, Gaynor Barton, Mairi Taylor (production team); and Chris Bates who organised the raffle. Thank you everyone.

Karisa Krcmar