The inoffensive Reverend Babbington chokes to death at a cocktail party he is attending with his wife at the home of famous actor Sir Charles Cartwright.

Some time later Sir Bartholomew Strange, an eminent doctor and friend of Cartwright, also dies of poisoning at a dinner party he is giving miles away.

There appears to be no link between the two deaths but Poirot, assisted by Cartwright, offers to help Superintendent Crossfield in the investigation and discovers that a mysterious butler with a tattoo on his wrist was hired for the night and appeared to share a joke with the dead doctor.

This man has now vanished and would seem to the killer. A third death, that of a sanatorium patient who has written to Poirot, would appear to link to the doctor’s murder and there is certainly a secret which somebody will go to any lengths to conceal – but who would gain from the death of a harmless old vicar?

Set in an apocalyptic medieval world, “Death” details the story of a band of brothers whose quest is to hunt down a necromancer against the backdrop of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England.

Kimberley has said there is no contact with the BBC Doctor Who crew, although some people may have hinted at it.

I just saw on Digitalspy

“Absolutely nothing [is happening with Doctor Who],” she told Metro. “They film in my home town so it would be good from a convenience point of view. I haven’t heard anything – just what I’ve read in the papers.”

She added: “I haven’t even auditioned.”

I think it’s a real shame, ‘who’ needs more welsh in it

Speaking of how her  friends handle her fame?

I think they’re secretly proud and find it quite funny whenever I appear in a magazine or newspaper. As for seeing me in Metro – I remember reading Metro every morning while we walked to drama school. For one of us to be the subject of a 60 Second Interview is quite a coup.

Kimberly Nixon attends the UK Premiere of ‘Easy Virtue’ during the BFI 52nd London Film Festival, at the Odeon West End on October 28, 2008 in London, England.

A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future – blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.

Today, Kimberley’s 23rd Birthday she begins work on on the stage adaptation of The Girl with the Pearl Earring”

Many happy returns, and Break a leg.

The stage version of Tracy Chevalier’s best-selling novel “The Girl With a Pearl Earring” will receive its world premiere this autumn at the Cambridge Arts Theatre where it will run from 11 to 20 September 2008, ahead of a planned West End transfer.

Chevalier’s 1999 historical novel was inspired by 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece of the same name (pictured). In the fictional story, Vermeer hires the teenage girl Griet to help in his house. But it’s not long before she becomes more than just a servant: she starts to help him in his studio, learning the art of painting by watching the master. And then, secretly, Vermeer begins to paint her, asking her to pose for his most famous portrait.

The play will star Kimberley Nixon and Adrian Dunbar. Nixon was most recently seen on TV as Sophy Hutton in Cranford and in the current film release Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.

Wild Child is an upcoming film directed by Nick Moore and is set to release on 21 March 2008. It also stars Emma Roberts as a rebellious teen from Malibu sent to an English boarding school by her dad.

The story centers on a 14-year-old girl who keeps a diary about the ups and downs of being a teenager, including the things she learns about kissing.#

Kimberley Nixon plays Wet Lindsay, girlfriend of Robbie the Sex God.

Also starring Alan Davies, Aaron Johnson and Georgia Groom.

Brilliantly funny, teenage angst author Louise Rennison’s first book about the confessions of crazy but lovable Georgia Nicolson.

 ”There are six things very wrong with my life: I have one of those under-the-skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years; it is on my nose; I have a three-year-old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room; in fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberfuhrer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic ‘teachers’; I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home; I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive. Follow Georgia’s hilarious antics as she tries to overcome the dilemma’s that are weighing up against her, and muddle her way through teenage life and all that it entails: how to replace accidentally shaved-off eyebrows; how to cope with Angus, her small labrador-sized Scottish wildcat; her first kiss with Peter – afterwards known as Whelk Boy; annoying teachers; unsympathetic friends and family; and how to entice Robbie the Sex God! Phew – she’s really got her work cut out!”

Kimberley Nixon, who appears with Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Francesca Annis, Julie McKenzie, Simon Woods and a

host of other wonderful actors in Cranford, which has become a solid-gold hit on the BBC.

Last Sunday’s second episode garnered close to eight million viewers. On the same day the first show was re-broadcast, claiming over three million more fans. Ms Nixon (pictured) plays rector’s daughter Sophy Hutton.

(She will also be seen in the Gurinder Chadha-Paul Mayeda Berges film Angus, Thongs And Full Frontal Snogging.)

Kimberley Nixon says she learned a lot from working with Dame Judi Dench on Cranford, including how to wile away the time when bad weather delays filming on location.

“We’d have to sit under a little tent waiting for it to stop raining, and Judi has so many games in her bag of tricks,” says the 20-year-old, who trained at the Royal Welsh College of<!–more–> Music and Drama.

“She taught us one where you take a piece of newspaper and you’re given a shape, such as a car, and rip away to make that shape. Eileen Atkins is really bad at it – if we said to make a car she would make a boat!”

Kimberley says: “A lot of my background is in theatre, so when you’re on location and the wind is really blowing, it’s raining and you’ve got mud all over you, it really keeps you on your toes.”

Actress and character are the same age, but Sophy’s adolescence was cruelly curtailed by the death of her mother six years earlier.

“She’s basically brought up her three younger siblings and is more or less the mistress of the house,” explains Kimberley.

“Sophy is intelligent and bright, and I think people like her because she is very genuine. She doesn’t entirely wear her heart on her sleeve, but she’s a very honest person with a lot of responsibility on her shoulders.

“When Dr Harrison arrives, he is someone she can talk to about things other than housework, children or dresses. From their first meeting, she feels an affinity with him, but their relationship is very up and down.

“Just when you think it is going in a certain direction, something comes along and swings it off on another course. It’s very exciting for the audience, but at times I don’t think poor Sophy can take much more.”

Perhaps it’s just as well that Kimberley’s next project – the movie Wild Child, starring among others Natasha Richardson and Aidan Quinn, and due for release in 2008 – is a slightly more light-hearted affair.

“I’m playing a schoolgirl, and it’s all girly mischief, which is really fun,” she says. “To flip between the two things is really great for me.”