Last of the Summer Wine

One of the latest adaptations from a hit TV series, Roy Clarke has written a stage play with a new plot for his main characters. Clegg (a suitably anxious Jonathan Sharpe) and Foggy (David Lightfoot showing his military leadership except when there is a real crisis) are about to entertain 'the ladies' in the shape of Constance, whom Foggy fancies enticing from her 14 year 'engagement' to Gifford Bewmont, and her aunt Nora Batty. This gentile evening is of course gatecrashed by Compo (the gravelly voiced Keith Royston) but while trying to hide his presence life becomes even more complicated when a 'flasher' chooses to hide in the house on the run from Gifford. The plot becomes more and more improbable as each character becomes more entangled and Nora tries to marry her niece off to Foggy who she sees as a better match than Gifford. 

The Thespians were very successful in casting the three main charcters to physically represent their TV counterparts. In turn the actors successfully portrayed the personalities of Clegg, Foggy and Compo while Maureen Speight, though lacking in height, gave a vigorous performance as Norah. David Smith played the slightly dippy Flash, Andrew Stopford the bugle playing Gifford and Meg Plummer was Constance. Everyone worked very hard as, in typical fashion for a farce, there was a lot of business to execute, not easy when you only have one stage rehearsal and just occasionally there was a slight hitch in the pace. I am sure they had great fun preparing it and the auience appreciated the performance. 

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