SILVER screen and Bond-girl legend Britt Ekland was sadly forced to retire from Monday night's performance of The Cat and The Canary at Bath's Theatre Royal due to illness.

Her role of Miss Pleasant, the housekeeper of Glenthorne Manor on bleak Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, was played by production understudy Briony Rawle.

The plot of this 1922 play by American John Willard is an original haunted house thriller, visiting the Theatre Royal to Saturday (Feb 29) with a star-studded cast led by the Swedish actress, Britt Ekland.

The rest of the cast comprises Mark Jordan, Tracy Shaw, Marti Webb, Gary Webster, Ben Nealon, Eric Carte, Nikki Patel, Martin Carroll and Jack Taylor, who all turn in good performances.

Twenty years after the death of a rich eccentric Cyrus West, his descendants gather at his remote mansion to learn who will inherit his vast fortune and hidden jewels.

At midnight on a stormy night, the old family lawyer Roger Crosby (Eric Carte) opens the will. When the heir is revealed, the heritage hunters turn into prey and a chain of macabre events is set in motion; walls crack open, shadows loom and dark secrets are revealed.

Once again, Bill Kenwright's Classic Thriller Theatre Company has produced a real spine-chiller adapted by Carl Grose and directed by Roy Marsden.

There were plenty of twists and turns along the way and some moments that truly make you jump as well as some surprises as the protagonists are revealed.

The Cat and The Canary is worth the ticket. Even if the play now seems a bit dated, it's still a classic.To book, contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk

John Baker