WHEN the curtain fell on the Apollo Theatre's latest whodunit, I really was left feeling it could have been any one of the characters.

Imagine six people in a house and suddenly one is dead.

The others all had the opportunity — and they all had plenty of motive.

Alan Ayckbourn's plays are always very clever and quirky and It Could Have Been Any One Of Us was skilfully directed by Mike Batcheler .

Michael Arnell was captivating and infuriating at the same time in the role of chief protagonist, Mortimer Chalke, the musical head of the household, who believed he had more talent than all the others put together.

I thought John Abraham was masterly as the rather nervous, introverted artist, Brinton Chalke — flouncing around one minute and overwrought the next.

Chris Turvey gave a solid performance as Mortimer's sister, Jocelyn Polegate, the writer who seems to have writer's block when it comes to her own whodunits.

Ellen Lamplough shone as Jocelyn's surly teenage daughter, Amy, who seemed resolute in the fact she has no artistic talents, except eating and having the occasional tantrum.

Maria Wilkinson made a welcome return to the Apollo stage as the outsider, Wendy Windwood, who was set to inherit the house — or was she?

Finally, Nick Turvey — real life husband of Chris, aka Jocelyn — coped admirably with his first major role for the Apollo as private detective, Norris Honeywell, who attempted to uncover the real murderer.

It was a great night's entertainment, made even better by the fact there was a voting form available for the audience to cast their vote on whodunit, just for fun — after all, maybe Norris had finally solved his first crime...but maybe not.