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The JoumaVMonday, March 10, 1997

. .REGIONAL NEWS 3

ma es aBy COLETTE HUME and

JO WOODS

MURDER is on the menu at aNorth-East country hotel- butdetectives are being drafted infrom Scandinavia to work outwhodunnit.

Norwegiantourists are so keen onthe mystery weekends at LumleyCastle, near Chester-le-Street,County Durham, that they are arriv-ing in droves for the AgathaChristie-styleexperience.

The weekends have proved sucha hit that about 400overseas sleuthshave already tried their hands atunmasking the murderer.

During the course of a candlelitdinner at the 14th-Century castle,~ests are traI?sporte~ba.ckin !ime --'.

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to an event tI~;t took place there1()()years ago.

They are introduced to the fic-tional owners of the castle, SirRalph Lumleyand his beautifulwifeLilly,their house guest Jack Homerand Dinah the maid.

In between courses the plot thick-ens and it soon becomes clear thateach of the characters has a reasonto kill.

When one of them is discovereddead, it is up to the dinner guests towork out whether the deed wasdone by Sir Ralph in the conserva-tory with a candlestick or Dinah inthe library with a piece oflead piping.

Actor Chris Gouldingwrites the mysteries andplays Jack Homer, a multi-millionaire toffee makerfrom Chester-Ie-Street.

He said: "The Norwe-gians love these weekendsso much. Lumley Castle istheir idea of a typical Eng-lish country house and it isthe Agatha Christie factorthat attracts them."

Murder By Candlelightispart of a Medieval Memo-ries weekend run by the 62-room luxuryhotel.

Hotel sales and market-ing director Sybil Cox said:"I think it's the fact that it'sa dinner with a differencewhich really makes it sospecial - that and the factthat Lumley is such a spec-tacular place.

"The plot unfolds duringa three-course candlelitdinner. There are lots ofclues to the murderer, butit's a real whodunnit with atwist in the tale.

"The Norwegians reallydo love coming over hereand we do our best to make surethey experience something out ofthe ordinary from the moment theystep off the plane at NewcastleAir-port."

Mrs Cox dons full Elizabethandress to greet the visitors. She is

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Scarborough. Mrs Cox said theguests were hungry to learn aboutthe history of Lumley and the area.

She said: "I seem to spend a lot oftime reading history books, but theyare so interested in the area and itspast that it's essential.

Norwegian Vice-Consul GerdJudy McNamara said she wasn't sur-prised that the weekends at Lumleywere so successful.

She said: "I think it's the English-ness of it all which makes it so popu-lar. They love the castles and thetraditions which are so strong here."

She said imported British detec-tive serials were popular across theNorth Sea.

"When I was growing up we hadall the big detective programmes onTV and a lot of people read thetranslations of popular detectivestories like the Agatha Christieseries."

Scandinavian big spenders visitingthe North-East have also been cred-ited with helping Newcastle rise to13th most popular place to visit inBritain ahead of Stratford-upon-Avon and Canterbury.. Latest figures from the BritishTourist Board show 210,000tourists visited Newcastle lastyear, making it the secondfastest growing city for foreigntourists. At the top of the list isGlasgow.

accompanied by a piper from theHoughton-le-SpringPipe Band.

During their stay,guests are alsotreated to a five-courseElizabethanbanquet.

Mrs Cox said: "It's a shock forthem coming through Customs to

be met by us, but the costumesreally add to the whole atmosphereof the weekend."

The Scandinavians are given awhistle-stop tour of Newcastlebefore arriving at the hotel, whichisthe ancestral home of the Earl of

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.Whodunnit?Top left, actor andmysteries writer Chris Goulding atLumley; above, the plot darkens; andleft, the scene of the crime.

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