YOUNGSTERS are following in the footsteps of their parents by treading the boards in a murder mystery play.

Adam Crompton, aged nine, Amy Costello and Vivienne Hall, both aged eight, are appearing in The Marco Players production of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Nile.

It opens at Chorley Old Road Community Hall tonight and runs until Saturday.

The budding performers are the offspring of Marco regulars Jason and Natalie Crompton, Paul and Gail Costello and Simon and Julie Hall.

Jason said: "Adam made his debut back in April in The Nerd with myself and is now in this one with his mum, Natalie.

"Amy and Vivienne are making their Marco debuts.

"They both saw Adam in The Nerd and wanted to have a go themselves.

"They’ve loved it and have proud parents to boot."

Written in 1946, the play is based on the crime novelist's 1937 book, Death on the Nile.

Although the book featured Hercule Poirot — the quirky Belgian detective created by Christie — she chose to exclude him from the play.

In the book's foreword, she said: “I think that the book is one of the best of my ‘foreign travel’ ones and, if detective stories are ‘escape literature’, the reader can escape to sunny skies and blue water as well as to crime in the confines of an armchair."

The production is directed by Mark Weatherall, who was last seen in The Marco Players production of The Ladykillers.

The cast also includes Len Rice, Ruth Sydall, Richard Leigh and James Haslam.

Murder on the Nile is on from tonight until Saturday at Chorley Old Road Community Hall, Chorley Old Road.

Phone 01204 841561 for tickets.