IN A change to the advertised cast, actor Tom Butcher will come to Basingstoke with Talking Scarlet’s gripping thriller Double Death.

He joins Brian Capron and Kim Tiddy for the Basingstoke run of the show, which takes over The Haymarket from October 15-18.

In an isolated house on the cliffs of north Cornwall the sibling rivalry between identical twins Max and Ashley Hennessy is coming to a murderous climax.

They both know one of them must die, but, trapped in his wheelchair, Ashley knows the odds are against him and he is in mortal danger – but does DI Fergus believe him?

And can he trust Nurse Malahide, who has been employed to protect him?

Poor Lalla, the twins’ aunt, is torn between the two boys: which of them is the victim and which is the psychopath? Perhaps they have done it again – pulled off the final ‘switch’.

Brian Capron (L) in Double Death 

Basingstoke Gazette:

Tom, who played PC Steve Loxton in The Bill from 1990 until 1997 and starred as Dr Marc Elliott in Doctors and Tim Gaskill in Casualty, was delighted to join the production.

He said: “I liked this play on first reading. It was a challenge, not just from a line learning point of view, but also technically it was rather daunting, with not a lot of time for rehearsals.

“But the cast made it really easy for me to fit in and this has worked out well for me.

“Simon Williams, the author, came to see it in Windsor last week and enjoyed it thoroughly.”

Tickets are available from the box office on 01256 844244 or go online to anvilarts.org.uk.