TONY Boncza is completing a hattrick of roles in Agatha Christie's murder mystery The Mousetrap spread over a quarter of a century.

From tonight, he will be in York, appearing at the Grand Opera House as Major Metcalf in the 60th anniversary touring production alongside the likes of Louise Jameson as Mrs Boyle, Lewis Collier as Sgt Trotter and Gregory Cox as Mr Paravicini.

"I played Sgt Trotter 25 years ago in the West End, in my mid-30s, and Mr Paravicini on the South East Asian tour three years ago and now Major Metcalf, so I came in as one of the youngest in the cast and now I'm one of the oldest," says Tony, who originally trained as a journalist before joining the National Youth Theatre and Central School of Speech and Drama.

"My remaining ambition is to play Mrs Boyle. I just need a far-thinking director who says Agatha Christie would have loved it. It would be a bit like Alastair Sim in the St Trinians, where he was so lovable and adorable, and if a man can play Nurse in Romeo And Juliet, why not have me playing Mrs Boyle in The Mousetrap?!"

David Turner, who has directed The Mousetrap since 1987, put Tony forward to play Sgt Trotter at St Martin's Theatre in his first Mousetrap experience. "Then, 22 years later, I was asked to audition for Mr Paravicini and luckily I got it. It was one of those five-star opportunities with five-star hotels and I was able to take my wife out there," recalls Tony. "We had two weeks at Raffles in Singapore; we stayed in a grand hotel in Bangkok, just above the Formula One racing track for the Thailand Grand Prix; then we went to Kuala Lumpur."

Happy memories indeed. "The thing about The Mousetrap is it's safe to put on in South East Asia," says Tony. "We had some colonial types coming to the play; some business people working out there; but we also had Chinese and Indian students and some Americans from an American school.

"In Bangkok, there were members of the Thai royal family there, who didn't seem that interested in the play but went for the social occasion. At Raffles, we had the Prime Minister of Singapore and his wife, who was rather flirtatious with me. It must have been my Italian air; maybe it was Mr Paravicini's accent.

"In Kuala Lumpur, we had the ex-Prime Minister and the heir apparent. It was all very high society, moving from room to room, being watched by men in suits; all a bit edgy actually."

Tony will be returning to York for the first time since he played the BBC director general in the 2012 tour of Yes, Prime Minister at the Theatre Royal. "It was in April, and York flooded the day after we left..and it rained for the rest of the year," he recalls.

He is enjoying his Mousetrap role number three. "When you're playing Sgt Trotter, it's such a huge part that you're fairly self-obsessed because you're driving the play and you're a young actor, but when you're playing Mr Paravicini or the Major, you realise Agatha Christie is such a great writer," he says. "You find you can bring so much to a character that you might not have done when you were younger. I'm playing Major Metcalf as an Edwardian Major, the kind you might have seen in The Lady Vanishes."

Comparing his three roles in The Mousetrap, Tony says: "They demand different things from you but there's a nugget of gold in each of them, so you treasure that nugget in whichever part you're playing. Mr Paravicini is perhaps the best character of all to play, but then you find there's more o the Major than you first realised, and I'm still in the early weeks of the tour, which is running for a year, and there's more to bring out in him."

Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, Grand Opera House, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

 

Did you know?

The Mousetrap first visited the Grand Opera House, York, on its 60th Anniversary Tour in May 2013 with a cast featuring Karl Howman, Jemma Walker, Bruno Langley and Graham Seed.