A FOUR-legged newshound will be one of the stars of a comic murder mystery making its debut in the North-East next month.

Five Dead No Bodies has been co-written by Susan Wear and Rob Lawson and will be performed at at The Customs House in South Shields in February.

Ms Wear was nominated for North East Writer of the Year for her play The Duke in the Cupboard, and Mr Lawson previously edited both the Shields Gazette and the Sunderland Echo.

Their play is about the fictional evening newspaper The Tyneside Times, which is struggling to retain its circulation and relevancy in the era of social media.

Ms Wear said: “The editor believes in good old-fashioned, honest news reporting and as the new fast-moving digital media blurs the line between fact and fiction, it drives him mad.

“The play reminds us that we really are in danger of losing our local newspapers, and we won’t know what we’ve lost until they’re gone.”

The play runs February 15 -18. Tickets are available priced £18 from the box office on 0191-454-1234.