You either love Dickens - or you don't. To most hacks the fact that he can take four pages to describe someone's coat is complete anathema - we'd do it in four words, and even his sunniest books are laden with doom, gloom, disaster and poverty.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood has all that - and more - and yet it has fascinated literary scholars for decades, mainly because Dickens died before it was completed.

As a whodunit it falls down on two major counts - you are neither sure whodunnit, nor what they did!

As an insight into the Age of the Empire, however, it is second to none - evoking the days when the sun never set on Britain's borders, when everyone knew their place in the pecking order and you didn't trust Johnny Foreigner.

And it is all these ingredients that the Merlin Theatre Company combined in a Musical Hall presentation of the book.

As a dense and, frankly often turgid text, the players did well to extract some shining moments of comedy, drama and emotion from the book.

And things took a decided turn for the brighter when the audience was called upon to decide on the twists and turns of the story.

The cast had rehearsed no less than 30 different endings, depending on whom the audience decided had 'dunnit'; what they did; who the identity of the mysterious Dick Datchery was, and who got to have a happy ending.

The cast gave it their all, although the pace flagged in the first half and some of the dialogue got lost.

But they were well-rehearsed and sparked off each other.

Outstanding were Vicky Jenkins, as the chairman; Christopher Tilbury, as John Jasper - has there ever been a Victorian baddie not named Jasper? - Janine Shearer, as Drood and Stacie Hall, as Princess Puffer.

There were other great performances from Anthony Wicks, Christopher Tilbury; Susie Shales; Mary Deller; Chris Webster-Smith; Endaf Davies; Ben Fawcett; Kris Sanders; Stephanie Westwood; Nick Tucker; Kelly Williams; David Hinley; Nicola Lloyd; Jo Higgins; Nick Tucker; Andrew Berrigan; Ffion Owen; Nicola Lloyd; Rebecca Regan and Rhiannon Jones.

The show was, as ever, directed by the indefatigable Simon Haslem, with costumes by Wendy Dyer and music by Sue Howley.