Giles Woodforde talks to the actor William Ilkley about The Mousetrap

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap positively lives and breathes statistics – although that’s perhaps an inappropriate way of talking about a murder mystery play.

It became the longest-running production of any kind in the history of British theatre way back in 1958. Now in its 63rd year in the West End, 350 actors and 187 understudies have appeared in the show so far – famously, the original West End cast included a young Richard Attenborough and his wife Sheila Sim.

Oxford has its own contribution to make to the Mousetrap statistics too. The play premiered in Nottingham in October 1952, and the following week it arrived at the New Theatre, Oxford, on the way to its West End opening. Details of the box office takings have long since disappeared into the mists of time, but New Theatre records, inscribed in beautiful copperplate handwriting, still reveal that £493.14.6d was taken across the bars and in ice cream and chocolate sales during the Mousetrap week – say £14,000 in today’s money. That compares with £368.11.5d the previous week for a play called See You in Court, so Oxford audiences obviously needed plenty of refreshment to fuel the brain as they tried to puzzle out whodunnit.

The Mousetrap remains an immortal fixture in the West End, but it’s currently out on tour as well and arrives at the Oxford Playhouse next week. Playing Major Metcalf on the tour is actor William Ilkley.

“When we talk about Major Metcalf, we have to ask is he really Major Metcalf?” William laughs. “That’s true of every character in Agatha Christie, everybody’s hiding a big secret. From the information the audience learns about Metcalf, he’s literally that, a retired Army major.

“The play is set at Monkswell Manor, which has recently been converted into to a guesthouse, and we know that the Major booked his room from Leamington, where he lives. But we don’t know anything else about him. That’s probably a good thing because in the final denouement of the play there is a huge reveal about Metcalf – which I refuse to talk about!”

OK, just supposing that the Major is some sort of imposter, does William give out any clues about his real identity?

“Absolutely I do. I try to create a world for the character where, had people known at the beginning what they know at the end, they could possibly have picked up on certain things – certainly physically. I can’t change Agatha Christie’s words but the actions I carry out as the character might tickle little memory boxes with the audience. That’s certainly happened when my friends and family saw the play twice. On the second visit they obviously know what happens at the end, so they say: ‘Now I see why you were doing that!’”.

William, who lived in Wantage during his childhood, has already spent a year playing Metcalf in the West End Mousetrap. Why, I ask him, has the play had such a phenomenally long run?

“I think it’s to do with the final moments of the play. Apart from being unique in theatre, the pledging of the oath by each audience member to keep the secret of who done it seems to be largely responsible – people do keep that secret.”

Where & When
The Mousetrap, Oxford Playhouse, August 17 to 22.
Tickets oxfordplayhouse.com or 01865 305305