The Last Swallow of Summer

This story was originally designed for Shelly's Restaurant in Warrington and is set in a restaurant. The owner, Jean Christophe Michelle and his latest wife Maxine Michelle are running the place alongside his first wife Michele Michelle and aided by their daughter Elle Michelle (confused yet?) and their loyal (?) staff Molly Mop, Scarlett and chef Pierre. Coincidentally, Detective Chief Inspector Semafor, only a month away from retirement, just happens to be there when.... 

The theme is run in conjunction with a meal and the staff are available to serve the food and clear away as part of their characters. However, we strongly advise not using Pierre as your chef.

Saint Trinian Susanna School's Production of MacDeath

Imagine the scene - a boarding school on the small and very remote Scottish Island, Invercockaleekie. Term end. The weather is atrocious and the phone lines are down. There is no cell phone coverage out here and the boat from the mainland cannot get through. Most of the kids have gone home for the break, leaving a few straggler sixth formers who have no such option in the charge of Miss McStrict, a cane-wielding tyrant whose punishments include cross-country runs and lots of cold showers, the dinner lady Colleen Skink and the headmaster Mr Deadhead (could his name be a clue?) The kids - Bonnie Clyde, Aisla Skye, Glen Coe, Ben Nevis and John E Walker, all have their own agenda and secrets, and teenage hormones are running riot... 

Please bear in mind that a lot of the D4D team can hardly even remember their teenage years - we're acting, OK? Your guests can be invited to join in the fun and dress up accordingly if you or they wish.

Which Witch is Which?

Halloween always brings out the worst in people, especially when there's a full moon. Our suspects are candidates in a reality TV show where they are dared to spend the night in a haunted restaurant with nothing but Ritz Crackers to eat, washed down with a cellar (that's downstairs, right? Where it's dark and spooky?) full of red wine (yes, the same colour as blood). But are those creaks and moans just sound effects from the TV people? And where are the hidden cameras? And why isn't anyone answering when they try to contact the show's producers? 

Crime and Distribution

Lil and Tammy are the twin daughters of Gil Lette, the famous entrepreneur of a household products distribution empire. It is the evening before Lil gets married to the oily Max Factor, a habitual gambler and womaniser who, it's suspected, has had a previous relationship with Tammy, the bride's sister. Despite Milton's attempts to keep everything on track, the sisters' continual in-fighting, the groom's lack of interest in anyone but himself, and the bridesmaid's alcohol consumption, Lil is poisoned and dies. Or does she?

This game was originally run as a surprise for a party of hotel guests who had no idea they were going to be involved in a murder mystery, so can be insinuated into an otherwise innocent evening if wished. The storyline unfolding as the guests gradually realise something is going on. 

The Codfather

Crime is out of control in prohibition-era Chicago. The Bold Street Gang, under the control of Don Calamari, and at war with the North Side Gang, headed by Al Mascarpone. Their respective molls, Ma Baker and Moll Flounders, have managed to set up a meeting between the two dons aimed at peace, but the mysterious Red Herring is there, along with Don's daughter Carla Calamari, so there could be trouble, especially since just about every woman there fancies Dick Tracy, who has joined forces with Elliot (Eton) Mess to defeat the gangs. Meanwhile speakeasy owner Machine-Gun Shelly watches over all. After some revelations about Carla's true father and suggestions of blackmail, Don is shot. But who would dare?

Just Cause

All your guests are also guests at the wedding breakfast, where the bride is keen to keep her colourful past hidden. But her new father in law knows everything - he was her best client. But what does mum know? Or the bridesmaid? Or the apparently innocent groom? One thing for sure, it won't just be the cake that'll be in tiers before the day's out. (Tiers = tears, geddit? OK, please yourselves.) 

A Fright at the Oscars

When this game was first run we happened to have people who look (a bit) like the stars implied by the character names, but this is not essential, and it would be easy to use any lookalikes/soundalikes you do have, by simple changes to the script.

It is the night of the Oscars, when a prestigious lifetime achievement award is to be given. The compère, Sir Bruce Foresight, is missing, so washed-up chat show host Oscar Winner grabs his chance at instant career rescue by stepping it to take over the microphone. Oscar has no real friends, probably because he publicly ridicules just about anyone, and his constant companion - single malt whisky - is not a lot of help. Eventually Sir Bruce is found in the car park, very dead. Everyone has good reason to be rather glad at this turn of events, but at least one of them has done something about it.

And is that the only killing on tonight's menu?

Scousino Royale

Bingo Starr, the drummer with the famous group The Boutles, is a gambler, usually unsuccessful, but this weekend he had come up on the Euromillions and Thunderball Lottery at the same time. And he's leaving the group, much to the dismay of the company directors, to start up a girl band - The Scouse Girls, with his daughter Anne Field.

When Bingo is found after having apparently choked to death (on a chicken drumstick, of course), the police are called, but the use of the word "Thunderball" in the emergency call means it is intercepted by the Secret Service, and instead of the police, James Bond and M turn up. There's a suspicion that the evil organisation known as SPECTRE (their boss is called Phil, geddit?) have infiltrated Banana Studios in order to provide a legal front for the illegal operations, and further that there is a mole on the inside. Added to that is the revelation that Bingo, a lover of chips, has been fitted with a special plastic dietary control band (invented by Doctor Robert) that makes the wearer say no to food - the Plastic Oh No Band. Who could have killed poor Bingo?

Take a Poison Pen Letter, Miss Smith

It's the office Christmas party again, when, lubricated with liberal amounts of free booze and a suspiciously spiked punch, the employees of D E Advertising are hell-bent (or is that Hell-bound) on resolving office jealousies, passed-over promotions and breaches of the Health and Safety Policy. Is someone on a staple diet? Will the photocopier work? Do they keep stationery or move about a lot? 

Warning - Contains Nuts

The setting could best be described as "an institution". Of course there is a carer in charge on this night shift, but the inmates are a difficult bunch. One thinks he's Elton John. Marilyn Monroe is there in case Elton wants to reprise "Candles In The Wind" . Madonna and Tina Turner are available for vocal support. The final member can't help with any support because he's The Invisible Man and nobody can see him - or so he believes. It is your guests' mission to get under the fanciful imaginations of the characters to discover the secrets beneath. Again guests can be invited to dress up as their favourite stage and screen stars if they wish. 

Come Dine With Me

Based around the myriad TV cookery competitions, Come Dine With Me has an assortment of Masterchef wannabes competing for the prize. And competition is very keen. Opportunities to sabotage the opponents' menus are numerous. Revenge and jealousies mount. Anything can happen. Murder weapons are all over the place. A karate chop? A steak through the heart? Poison marrows? Strawberries and scream? Swiss (army knife) roll? All these and other bad jokes may or may not be used in evidence. Join Chris P Duck, Roland Butter, Victoria Sponge, Chelsey Bunn, Cherry Bakewell and Lynne Guini for a chop or two.

The Ex-Factor

Would you be pleased if you were just getting your Bed & Breakfast business up and running only to find the hotel's inspector is your husband's ex-wife, hell-bent on screwing things up? And she's bringing her boyfriend, rumoured to be an ex-Chippendale, along for the inspection, on the very night that some suspicious-looking guests have booked in. It can only go horribly wrong. 

The St Valentine's Day Mascara

It's Chicago in 1929 - well, actually, it's the rural village of Stow-in-the-Wardrobe - rival gangs are running the bingo and wheels on meals evenings and are fighting over the whist drive territory. Al "the zimmer" MasCapone and his arch enemy John "Wintergreen" Dillinvinegar are heading for a showdown in a deserted church hall on the seedy side of town. Can Al's moll, the local WRVS organiser Delores "tea urn" and Dillinvinegar's wife Bonnie "does my bum look big in this" Porker stop the shoot-out? Can the Avon lady deliver in time? Will anyone else be involved? Probably. Maybe. 

The Lord of the Gas Rings

Another restaurant theme, this time with the chef and the owner trying to win that elusive third Michelin star. The chef doesn't like the way the owner runs front of house, and the owner of the restaurant just down the road is not above sabotage. Worst of all, the Michelin inspector will turn up anonymously. Witness the battle between good and evil to save Middle Earth. Our suspects - Roland Butter, Victoria Sponge, Cherry Bakewell (a tart), Barry Brith, Pattie de Foisgras, Philip Stake, Donna Cabab and Basil Pesto will, no doubt, make a meal of things.

The Kitchen Sinks

All aboard for the maiden voyage of the Titanic, where rival catering staff battle against rough seas to get the top post - the one who gets the most compliments from the passengers will win the accolade, but want to increase their chances by eliminating anyone they consider opposition. They have to be very careful, of course, that the crimes will not be detected by the police when they arrive in New York. Whether there will be enough ice for the martinis will not be of concern, but they should all go down well. 

A Stew to a Grill

In the world of International Espionage anything can happen. Spies need to go under cover, and what better cover than working in a restaurant, where our would-be spies will be able to overhear all kinds of secrets from the diners? The problem they will have is that they have no idea who is on which side. Or whether this is a training exercise or the real thing. When someone murders an important diplomat, they have to discover whodunnit without giving too much away or getting killed themselves in a retaliatory action by foreign agents. 

Some Like It Hot

Is it possible to murder someone with a curry? Golly gosht, yes. Definitely. And it's not a very pleasant way to go. It starts with hot flushes....  Dan Sack, Sam Oser, Papa Dom, Vin de Loo, Logan Josh, Pappa Dumb, Nan Bredd, Sam Ber and Tam Dori are all hot on the trail... 

Wok Around the Clock

A Chinese Restaurant theme this time, with the diners celebrating an engagement party between Chris P Duck and his bride Char Sue. But danger lurks between the spare ribs and the chow mein. There is a shot and nobody tells Chris P to duck. But that's the trouble with murders - you have one and a few minutes later you want another one. 

The Weakest Drink

It's a TV game show where the prizes are huge. The host urges the contestants into playing dirty tricks to get their opponents eliminated in this vote-off competition. But someone has taken the idea too far and elimination becomes an altogether more sinister affair. There are several rounds and then a sudden death playoff!

Bye De Hi

It's "good mourning campers" as everything goes wrong at the Butlers Holiday (I mean Internment) Camp as the new warden implements his idea that making the local nick more like a 1950s holiday camp will rehabilitate the prisoners. Meet in the "Behind Bar" for cocktails and porridge... 

Only Ghouls and Corpses

We are spectators at a séance with a difference. People are trying hard to contact "the other side", not to join it. But there are secrets that those on the other side, who are not shy about showing themselves, want to reveal about the ones from this side, secrets that people will go a long way to keep hidden!

Suggest your own bespoke theme if you wish - but give us plenty of notice.