Bags of fun for all here (Teesdale Mercury)

Its a quarter of a century since Gainford Drama Club last performed the John Chapman play, Diplomatic Baggage. But the marathon 10-day run which began at the Academy Theatre on Tuesday last week was as fresh and timeless as ever, judging by the opening night performance. Slick music and movement, smart set and costume, and after an understandably hesitant first-night start, excellent characterisation and acting from all members of this talented company .

Buffooning Barrington Wear-mouth revelled in his role as Capt Luke Layton RN (Ret); an upper-class version of TV”s Fools and Horses” Uncle Albert. Claire Bell, as niece Pamela, and Paul Illingworth, as her hapless husband Barry, completing a very convincing family trio, in a story about a mix-up over a diplomatic bag. Paul Richardson as Barry”s pill-pushing, hypochondriac Board of Trade boss, Harrison Tweddle MBE, showed the seedy side of his character was not just about his health when the scene changed from the Laytons” living room in South Kensington, to a sumptuous suite at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Paris. Mike Sillars as the lecherous Monsieur Martell; his gluttonous wife, played by Di Peat; Louise Stephenson as flirty Fifi, the chambermaid; Jane Graham and Jennie Dobson as French “secretaries”; and Viv Cordial, as Tweedie”s driver, were all a delight. But for me, John Robinson as the bumbling hotel porter, stole the Paris scene.

Many years ago I worked with someone who used a diplomatic bag to send his laundry home to his mother in Malta. Here you get the chance to see diplomats washing their dirty linen in public.