Love's Labour's Lost

At the Kingston Rose

It has been a quiet start to the year so far, with jus tone trip to the theatre in January; but quite a special one it was for any number of reasons. Firstly it was back to Kingston Theatre, now not such a special event, but a mainstay of our theatrical life. Secondly, it was to see Stop messing About, a light piece based on the short-lived Kenneth Williams centred radio programme from the 1960s. Not only did it premier at Kingston Rose, but it had music written by Rod Anderson. This was a great excuse to get a mob together, which I successfully did, and 20 of us bolstered the Saturday afternoon performance. Some of you may find bells ringing, those bells belonging to Round the Horne.. Revisited, a great success a few years ago. Indeed, this is the same team - completely. writers Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer are hoping to have some of the same success with the same cast, director and (of course) composer. So Charles Armstrong reprises his role as slightly flirtatious BBC announcer Douglas smith, Nigel Harrison returns as Hugh Paddic, Emma Atkins doubles for Joan Sims and Robin Sebastian is excellent as Kenneth Williams himself. It was a highly entertaining afternoon, funny, well played and thoroughly enjoyable.

If you note the slightly feint praise, it is probably a historical problem. Round the Horne was a phenomenal success, and ...Revisited had me crying with laughter at times. Stop messing About was a short lived surprisingly unsuccessful radio programme, and I felt this version was... just not as funny. The thing each piece lacks, of course, was Kenneth Horne. Although apparently doing little in his avuncular hosting of the programme, th  real programmes found that putting Kenneth Williams up front with no bigger character to play off was a failure. And so ti translates to the modern version. Funny, yes, but just jot as funny as when Kenneth Horne was in it.

So no complaints form our group, all of whom had a great time, and indeed continued to through pub and (slightly bizarre) outside meal by the river. But the overall feeling remained - not as good as Kenneth Horne. Perhaps the daring thing to do would have been to write Kenneth into Stop Messing About? A sort of What if? approach to radio comedy. So if it tours, do go, do enjoy. Just don't expect it to be quite as good; it lack one ingreident, and sadly there is nothing to be done about that.

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