Yes Prime Minister you're a hit with the fans
Vintage comedy gets the vote from Chichester.
HERE'S a suggestion for theatre fans.
Forget a night out in the West End and book yourself an away day to Chichester. It's just two hours by car (M25 willing) and the town is not only a jewel of the south coast, with some stunning beaches, but it also has one of the best theatres in the country.
So far this year Chichester Festival Theatre has welcomed back Patrick Stewart in Bingo and this season it promises a stage version of Love Story, Rupert Everett in Pygmalion, a spectacular new production of 42nd Street, a comic double bill with Sheridan's The Critic and Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, and new adaptations of Ibsen's The Master Builder and Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, not to mention a return of Enron.
Book yourself a room in The Ship, North Street , a dinner table at the theatre's excellent restaurant, and hit the delightful city and beaches the next day.
It's days since a new government was formed but at CFC it's business as usual for TV's fictional PM Jim Hacker.
Margaret Thatcher's favourite comedy, Yes Prime Minister, has risen out of the ashes in the form of a new stage production by its original creators, Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay, and, for some, of us, it was not before time.
It's an astonishing 30 years since Jim and his civil servant mandarin, Sir Humphrey Appleby, delighted television audiences with, firstly, Yes Minister, and then its successor, Yes Prime Minister.
Political comedy has thrown up some who would snatch the crown (The Thick Of It in particular) but none match the class of Lynn and Jay's confident and utterly believable dialogue.
Sadly its two original stars, Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne are no longer with us but they would have heartily approved of the new incumbents to No. 10.
In the hot seat was a rather shabbily dressed David Haig, one of this country's finest actors whether he's playing it straight (My Boy Jack or Journey's End) or for laughs (Art, Donkey's Years).
While there's no doubting his credentials for comedy, every golden line delivered to perfection, he didn't look like a PM. He looked like a school teacher who'd gone to Wal Mart for his clothes.
This was one politician following the Michael Foot, Harold Wilson and Gordon Brown school of nonchalant dressing. I just wanted to put him in a decent shirt and get Sam Cam to give him a makeover.
His nemesis, Sir Humphrey, saw Henry Goodman (recently seen at Milton Keynes Theatre in Duet for One) playing safe by following in Nigel Hawthorne's bespoke footsteps.
The cabinet secretary was every inch the wily old fox constantly plotting one Machiavellian scheme after another to save both the government and his cushy index-linked pension though Goodman was, on occasions, a little too smarmy.
The pair of them engage in a series of verbal ripostes that touched on the themes of today, global warming, paedophilia, economic bankruptcy, EU domination over UK interests and a prolonged and bitter attack on the BBC which not only drew wild applause but almost a standing ovation.
The story, manic at times, involves a big oil pipeline deal that could save Britain and Europe from penury but its success rested on Hacker approving the supply of an underage schoolgirl for sex with the deal's chief negotiator.
The moral and ethical dilemma sees Hacker unravelling, almost like a potted version of John Cleese, as he drowned his sorrows in scotch and looked to his staff for salvation.
Jonathan Slinger's performance as Bernard Woolley, the PM's principal private secretary, involved a lot of gurning and soul-seeking as he found himself piggy in the middle between his boss and Appleby. It didn't have the quiet finesse of Derek Fowlds' TV character but it was perfect for stage.
Let's hope the powers that be decide to take Yes, Prime Minister on tour because it is one of the funniest comedies I've seen in a long time and one which deserves a wider audience.
And let's hope someone can twist the arms of Lynn and Jay to sit down and write another TV series because this sort of quality is sadly lacking from television today.
Yes, Prime Minister runs at Chichester Festival Theatre until June 5. For tickets call the box office 01243 781312 or go online www.cft.org.uk
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Friday 25 May 2012
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