ANSWERS

1) D. A birthday gift for a queen

IT WAs originally a BBC radio play, written as an 80th birthday present for Queen Mary, wife of King George V, and broadcast in May 1947. It was first entitled Three Blind Mice and is the world’s longest-running show.

2) A. Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim (pictured right)

THE husband and wife took a 10 per cent stake in the production in exchange for part of their salaries. Richard Attenborough said of it: ‘Foolishly I sold some of my share to open a short-lived Mayfair restaurant called the Little Elephant and, later still, disposed of the remainder in order to keep [the 1982 film] Gandhi afloat.’

3) True

ACCORDING to the company set up by Agatha Christie: ‘The contract terms of the play state that no film version can be made until the West End show has been closed for at least six months, and since it is still running, no official film has been made.’

4) C. Lord’s Cricket Ground

IN 1961, The Mousetrap made history by being the first advertiser of any kind at Lord’s when it was promoted on a cricket scorecard.

5) C. Christie’s grandson

AGATHA Christie gave the rights to the play to her grandson Mathew Prichard as a ninth birthday present.

6) True

IN 1959, the London cast put on a production for 300 prisoners at London’s Wormwood scrubs. Fifteen minutes before the final curtain, warders discovered two inmates had escaped mid-performance.