Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice have created songs for a Theatreland mystery by Humphrey Ker and David Reed. We find out how they doubled up for the detective’s ‘gory’ new case

New songs by musical colossi Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. A script by Humphrey Ker and David Reed, old muckers from sketch troupe The Penny Dreadfuls. And a fresh grisly-merry case for Sherlock Holmes. You can only deduce from this evidence that Birmingham Rep has a likely hit on the horizon.

Sherlock Holmes and the 12 Days of Christmas – which will open at the Rep in November – follows Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective around London’s Theatreland. Holmes suspects someone is bumping off actors, Rice explains, “matching each gory death with something from the 12 days of Christmas”. He chuckles over our video call: “Quite a funny idea!”