1980

Oct/Nov

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Book Of The Month

A Comedy by Basil Thomas

Produced by Lynda Leigh

	Cast
	Edward Halliday MP	Percy Hodgson
	Joanna, his wife	Audrey Rayner
	Marcia Wentworth, her sister	Joan French
	Betty (Bim) Halliday, their daughter	Jane Ratcliffe
	Doris, the maid	Carol Nixon
	Col Howard Barnes-Bradley	Trevor Hall
	Dr. Owen Evans	Roy Lewis
	Nicholas Barnes-Bradley	Nigel Phillips





	The action takes place in the lounge hall of Edward Halliday's house near Cheltenham.

Synopsis

"Book of the Month" is based on one of those brilliantly simple comic ideas that make one wonder why nobody thought of it before. In the first act an MP's teen-age daughter horrifies her family with the revelation that she is the author of the current bestseller "Bare Bosom'd Night". What's more, she has based the characters in this novel on her own family.
In the second act we see this pleasant, law-abiding family as they apear in the book, transformed by the daughter's over-ripe imagination. There is intrigue, melodrama, unbridled passion - not al all like the home life of our own dear Members of Parliament. (Commentary copied from rear cover of script)

I see that this play began its life in the unlikely surrounding of Preston, before travelling via Windsor and Wolverhampton, and finally hitting the London stage on 21st October 1954 - one year to the day before I was born. Set in the context of the time, one can see why such a racey title and the mention of bosoms might cause such consternation within the ranks of a "respectable" family.

No surprises in the cast, which is drawn from the regular gang. However, for the first time an individual (Cliff Mewett) is credited with the responsibility for "special effects". I must read the script one of these days. It all sounds like jolly fun!