ROUND THE HORNE...REVISITED. To 18 June.
Tour
ROUND THE HORNE . . . REVISITED
by Barry Took, Marty Feldman, Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, adapted by Brian Cooke
Tour to 18 June 2005
Runs 2hr One interval
Review Hazel Brown 5 April 2005 at Lighthouse, Poole
Bona to vada their dolly old eeks again. The only thing missing from this show was the smell of Sunday lunch cooking, but it was wonderful to hear the voices and well remembered jokes from one of the funniest-ever radio shows. Close your eyes and you could be back in the 60's; no wonder the majority of the audience was middle aged.
Stephen Critchlow, suave and urbane as presenter Kenneth Horne, has a nice twinkle in his eye. Oliver Beamish is suitably bashful as the BBC announcer dragged in to do sound effects. Stephen Matthews. deliciously salacious as he mimics the camp see-sawing tones of Kenneth Williams, is also comically outraged at the untrained' Smith trying to secure more of a role for himself. David Rumelle and Felicity Duncan come together as the marvellous pairing of Hugh Paddick and Betty Marsden in their roles of Dame Celia Molestrangler and aging juvenile Binky Huckaback. In fact, their two sketches were the most warmly received by the audience I know you know I know and Somewhat terribly, ineffably, marvellously,
yet . . . . .
The two halves of the evening represent the recording of two separate shows. Hits and sounds of 60's radio fill the auditorium from the start. A studio engineer and a cleaner clear the decks, setting up for the live transmission. The cast walk on with scripts, wait for the green light and off they go, stepping forward to the microphones to act out their sketches with the original cast's well-oiled aplomb. We meet Jules and Sandy, Ramblin Sid Rumpo, J Peasmold Gruntfuttock, witness the making of a Horne-o-Graphic Production (surely the forerunner of Morecombe and Wise's Play What I Wrote') and experience a new language (see above) etc. Wonderfully salacious innuendos and politically very incorrect humour are performed with verve and gusto.
The backdrop is a huge old radio with all the familiar 60's stations Light, Home, Third, Hilversum, Luxembourg - lit up. A heartwarming evening if likely to mystify anyone under 30, unless they know the originals from tapes or repeats. For the more mature, it certainly was bona to vada their jolly old eeks.
Kenneth Horne: Stephen Critchlow
Douglas Smith: Oliver Beamish
Kenneth Williams: Stephen Matthews
Hugh Paddick: David Rukelle
Betty Marsden: Felicity Duncan
Sound Effects Man: C P Hallam
Sound Effects Woman: Courtney King
Director: Michael Kingsbury
Designer: Liz Cooke
Lighting: Tony Simpson
Sound/Music: Rod Anderson
2005-05-02 23:15:36