Thank you so much for joining us on one of my Original Murder Weekends. I hope you will have an immensely enjoyable weekend on this, my 103rd plot – one which I hope will entertain, confuse and amuse you.

October 30th 2009 is the 28th birthday of my invention, the first interactive Murder Mystery in the world, and this winter will also see a huge, but rather gruesome, milestone in our history, our 10,000 murder!

A couple of years ago I wrote a plot that revolved around a fictitious fan club of the group Queen. It was a lot of fun and a guest said to me at the time, “as you were born, bred and still live in Liverpool, how is it that you haven’t written a plot about The Beatles?”, and so here it is –
THE YELLOW SUBMARINE CLUB.

The reason for our fictitious theme is to explain why a group of total strangers would meet at a hotel but, once the murders start, it quickly fades into the background as you turn sleuth to deduce the reasons and motives for a series of untimely deaths. We hope you will enjoy playing along with the main characters.

The Yellow Submarine Club is a fictional web-based fan club for the fab four and to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of their last album Abbey Road which was completed in September 1969, the club organiser and web host, Sadie Stanley has invited all the members to join her for a fun weekend celebration. So you, the Murder Weekend guest, should create a little story about yourself and the fact that you’re a member. If you really love the Beatles you could say you’ve been a member since Sadie started the website 10 years ago. Or, if you hate the Beatles, you can say that you were dragged along by your partner who loves them, or a friend who hasn’t been able to come because of flu – lucky things!

Throughout the weekend, there will be themed games and quizzes – they are not complicated but just a light-hearted way to get you chatting to your fellow guests and to alleviate the stress on your brains from trying to make sense of the dastardly deeds. There is only game that is loosely based on the Beatles themselves, but love them or hate them, you would still be able to play. Nothing is compulsory on Murder Weekends, so if you’d rather sit out a game and go to the Incident Room to study the evidence then that’s absolutely fine.

On Murder Weekends we always have a colour theme on the first night, and I thought that under the circumstances there could only be one colour – yellow! I know it’s not to everyone’s taste and you may not have a bright yellow shirt in your wardrobe, but you could wear a daffodil in your lapel or yellow socks. Also I thought it would be nice to have a bright and cheerful colour as we’re racing towards winter and may need a little uplift after this very wet summer. So wear as little or as much yellow as you like; it could be a sparkly dress, bow tie, baseball cap, socks or even yellow bra that’s cheekily showing above your dress line! (That was written for the ladies, but hey, there is a bottle of wine for the best outfit!!)

On Saturday night we always have a themed party. I don’t call them fancy dress, as some people hate dressing up, but you can be very minimalist and still join in. For this particular party I thought it would be fun if you could come as the title of one of the Beatles singles – they are listed on the internet and there are over 250 to choose from. For example it would be fun if people came wearing childlike clothes and have pictures of themselves as a child – ‘Yesterday’; or you could dress older and wear make-up to age yourself up and come as ‘When I’m Sixty Four’; you could wear a black T shirt, with a photo of Sylvester Stallone stuck on the front, then wear a tail made of black and white rings and come as ‘Rocky Raccoon’.

Over the years we’ve found that the simplest ideas are often the best and many of our guests say that half the fun is creating their costume before the Weekend to get them in the mood (so please don’t hire something special, save your money and have some fun being creative). If you’re stuck for an idea then please get in touch with us at the Murder Weekend office and we’ll do our best to give you inspiration.

The main reason for the theme is so we can all role-play and get involved, which adds to the realism of the characters and consequently the plot - so please pretend you are guests of “The Yellow Submarine Club” weekend. Don’t mention the words ‘Murder Weekend’ or ‘murder’. We’ll only look at you as though you are completely daft and deny all knowledge of any such thing.

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, and so that no-one misses anything they are usually when everyone is together but Saturday morning is free and you won’t miss anything by going out shopping or visiting the local places of interest.

We know you’ll have a lot of fun, no matter how you decide to play the game, but for those of you who are keen sleuths and want to solve the crime, I have enclosed some tips to help. It is also a good idea to bring along a small notepad and pen to jot down conversations you overhear or evidence you think is important.

We very much look forward to seeing you on Friday at the Welcome Reception at 8.00 pm, before dinner at 8.30 pm.

If there’s anything that you’re unsure of, please do not hesitate to ring us at the Murder Weekend office.

We hope you have a marvellous time and manage to crack the crime, which will be solved when the Detective makes an arrest at 12 noon on Sunday, when sadly the “The Yellow Submarine Club” weekend officially ends.

* PLEASE NOTE: Could you let us know your full name and the names of any other guests in your party, as we need them for seating plans and to ensure that you are all sitting together.