THRILLERS have long played their part in the summer seasons of the Leeds Grand Theatre, and who better to call on than the Agatha Christie Theatre Company.

This is the company's tenth anniversary year, the perfect opportunity to stage "the best-selling mystery of all time" in the Queen of Crime's own stage adaptation.

Impresario Bill Kenwright is backing the Christie company's production, a guarantee of high-quality touring values from his myriad musicals, and the work of designer Simon Scullion, costume designer Roberto Surace, lighting designer Douglas Kuhrt and sound designer Matthew Bugg deserves its own round of applause.

As you will note from the accompanying production shot, Scullion's design with the huge circular window to the sea is as spectacular as the backless dress worn by Kezia Burrows' glamorous Vera Claythorne: the highlight of Surace's couture, although the cream suit for Ben Nealon's insufferably smug Philip Lombard is a dandy piece of work too.

Claythorne and Lombard are but two of the group of ten strangers lured to a remote island off the coast of Devon. The butler Rogers (a grey, stooping Frazer Hines) and his wife, the cook Ethel (Judith Rae), are there to welcome everyone but the host, "the unknown Owen", is missing. In the absence of the eccentric millionaire, a recorded message pronounces a criminal charge of murder against every person present; crimes for which each was never convicted.

On the mantelpiece are a line-up of toy soldiers, and above them are the words of the haunting nursery rhyme in which their deaths are foretold, one by one by one...and then there were none.

Joe Harmston's slick production moves at a lick with plenty of wit and bags of intrigue, as a storm brews and escape from the island becomes impossible. The more the play progresses, the speedier the rate of the deaths among the house guests, as the body count grows and suspects are eliminated.

The cast enters wholly into the spirit of the suspenseful drama, not least Gary Mavers' boorish South African William Blore; Mark Curry's ever-rushing Doctor Armstrong; Deborah Grant's ghastly, prudish snob Emily Brent; and Eric Carte's bluff General Mackenzie.

Neil Stacy's constantly judgemental Sir Lawrence Wargrave is the pick of the company with a vintage performance style that would have been thoroughly at home in a film of the period. It is always such a pleasure to see old-school acting with a substantial bearing and a voice to match.

Musicals will return to the fore in the Grand Theatre's autumn season, but there will always be a place for a classic drama, a play of mystery, panache, dark humour and swell design.

Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie Theatre Company, Leeds Grand Theatre, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: 0844 848 2700 or leedsgrandtheatre.com