Frankie Howerd stamped his personality so indelibly on this show and the Up Pompeii television series that stemmed from it that any revival without him cannot be anything more than an impression.
Walmsley Church Operatic Society, like other amateur societies before them, coul dnot resist the itch to have a go at their Egerton Schoolroom Bolton and suffered a similar fate of inadequacy. One would like to acclaim them with an exultant Up Egerton, but...
Funny things did happen, much of the dialogue humour came over, but this is a situation comedy too and it sagged in this respect. There were too few players with a natural sense of the ridiculous and where were the singers?
Former Oscar winner Arnold Knowles played the Howerd role in the only way he could - his own. And it would have been adequate if the ghost of Howerd ha only consented to lie down.
Philip Lloyd, as the head servant, stood out among the other characters. Jeff Taylor, as the dealer in courtesans, suggested an appropriate air of cunning, but there were too many caricatures among the others.
In the dealer's glamorous stock-in-trade was one who fitted the picture perfectly - Brenda Dixon as Gymnasia.
David Tyldsley produced, assisted by Ernest Pollitt.
