New Theme

Thank you so much for booking one of my original Murder Weekends. I hope you will have the most brilliant time with us – a weekend getting away from it all, where you can sleuth, sing, play games and laugh a lot, entering a ‘golden bubble’ of mystery and happiness, where we can forget all the cares of the world, and in the case of this plot – hopefully solve it!

If this is your first time, we really hope that you thoroughly enjoy the experience and that we live up to your expectations. If you’ve been before, thank you so much for returning, welcome back and thank you for spreading the word!

I invented interactive Murder Weekends 45 years ago and this January is the start of a year in the life of Murder Weekends – a year when I will be celebrating our 45^th birthday on the 30^th October 2026! I have promised everyone that I will do my very best to write my best plots ever, and this new plot, our 158^th, is already getting all the actors excited.

In 1981 I invented the mechanics of my creation – the realistic plot, the characters, the murders, the games, the fun – but unknowingly, I also created the very best part of the weekends and that is how amazingly sociable they are! I can’t tell you how many friendships have been made between guests –we are so very lucky to meet with the loveliest people weekend after weekend.

Each Original Murder Weekend plot is based around a fictitious theme which is the vehicle to explain why a group of strangers would all meet up together in a hotel for the weekend. You, our fabulous guests, will create a fictional story as to why you are here and joining in our themed weekend. The new theme is called ‘The Music Men’ and is the fun reason why everyone is gathered.

We have, over the last 45 years, had several musical plot themes; “It’s a Kinda Magic” – A Queen Fan Club; “Help” – A Beatles Fan Club; “Hakuna Matata” – an Elton John Fan Club and “Knowing Me, Knowing You” – An Abba Fan Club and all these plots have gone down so well, even with people who didn’t particularly like the band.

Some of the younger members of our fantastic team have been pleading for a Boy Band Fan Club, but being a person of a certain age, as are many of our guests, I thought that wouldn’t go down that well. I couldn’t tell the difference between New Kids on the Block or the Backstreet Boys, Stray Kids or The Wanted –they couldn’t hold a candle to The Drifters or The Who and I also thought their music probably won’t stand the test of time and still be played in 30 years’ time!

That’s when I came up with the idea of The Music Men! A website for fans of Man Bands, made up of all men that have been super groups over the last 70 years. Many consider The Beatles to be the original ‘Boy Band’, but we all have our favourites, whether we’re 70 or 17! So this is a plot theme for everyone that loves music, of any age. But don’t worry, it’s not just about fun, games, laughing and making friends, there’s a lot of ‘murdering’ going on as well and killers to be caught!

I also thought this could be a plot geared towards our male guests. They could all arrive saying that they were a member of a popular band from the past (could be real or fictitious), and they can create a fun storyline about their hits, their tour stories when ‘those were the days’! Our lady guests can be the groupies, the fan club secretaries, the proud mothers of the pop star sons, but importantly, everyone, but everyone knows the legend that is Don Silverwood; the famous record producer, who like Simon Cowell launched many ‘man bands’ over his 50 year career and that is the theme of our weekend. Everyone is here to celebrate Don’s amazing success and incredible career.

We are going to hold a surprise party, and Don is completely unaware that he is arriving at the hotel for a celebration, just thinking he is coming for a quiet weekend away with his fourth wife! She has arranged as many of his employees and ‘stars’ to arrive and when he walks into the bar at 8.20 on Friday night(which will be in complete darkness) he will be totally shocked when the lights go on and we all shout ‘surprise’!! That will be the highlight of Don’s weekend, it will go rapidly downhill after that!

We always have a colour theme on Friday night, and as we’re honouring Don Silverwood, I would love you all to wear as much silver as possible. Silver jacket, trousers or dress, black suit with silver bow tie, silver scarf, a chance to wear your special Christmas party outfits again, silver jewellery. But please don’t spend a fortune, whatever is in your wardrobe or local charity shop. If you do want to wear something special or unusual, Amazon have some very cheap options -kimonos, pyjamas, the list is endless.

On Saturday night, there will be a themed party and for the last few years, the theme has been based on an alphabetical letter. Every weekend our fabulous guests astound us with so many fun, ingenious and creative outfits. So, for this plot it’s going to be “Something beginning with “M” for Marvelous Men!! There are literally thousands to choose from. However, if fancy dress isn’t your bag, please don’t worry, just sticking something on your clothes would work – wear a black T shirt with row of numbers in columns written on in tippex, or on a piece of paper, pinned on, and come as The Matrix; you could wear your old bridesmaid dress and come as ‘Maid of Honour’, wear a Union Jack and come as ‘Made in Britain’, or you could go completely head to toe Minnie Mouse! You, our fabulous guests are so creative and always come up with the incredible ideas and it’s usually so hard to choose the best. Often the simplest ideas are the most subtle and cryptic but if you want to go to town, as some of our guests love to do, saying it’s a fun build up which means their weekend starts long before they arrive – you could spend weeks making your outfit. But remember, do as little or as much as you want – we just want you to feel comfortable and have a lovely time and lots of fun. Please don’t hire anything unless you want to – make, beg, steal or borrow! We’d hate you to spend any money on what is, after all, just a bit of fun which always causes amusement and is a great photo opportunity for our guests. If you do get stuck, give Geri a ring at our office or look at our Facebook page, where you will see lots of photos of guests from previous weekends.

As usual, throughout the weekend, there will be some fun, themed games, with prizes for the winning tables (but NOT for ‘Googlers’!!). None of them are complicated but just a light-hearted way to get you chatting to your fellow guests to break the ice and alleviate the stress on your brains from trying to make sense of the dastardly deeds – after all, if we were only sitting around talking about murder, it would get quite deep and dark and what we most enjoy on Murder Weekends is to laugh!

The Murder plot lasts for the entire weekend, and the actors will be in character from the welcome reception on Friday night until the end of the summing up on Sunday. Over the course of the weekend there will be at least three murders in the complex plot. Saturday morning is free, and you won’t miss anything by going out shopping or visiting the local places of interest (although the police will have announced on their arrival that no one can leave the hotel, I’m sure they’ll turn a blind eye!!) but do pop into the Police Incident Room to see the first pieces of evidence before you go out and please be back for lunch at 1.00 p.m.

Nothing is compulsory on Murder Weekends, so if you’d rather not wear fancy dress or want to sit out a game, go for a snooze or visit the Incident Room to study the evidence, that’s fine. But remember there is always quite a lot of action and we only have rows, deaths etc when all the guests are assembled. This is usually over mealtimes and sometimes when we’re marking games, so even if you don’t play, do come back, otherwise you may miss something vital that’s related to the plot, like another murder! Timings will be in the timetable in your arrival welcome pack.