Doctor in the House

‘Doctor in the House’ written by Richard Gordon, has been adapted for the stage by Ted Willis. It is showing at the Melville Theatre, Stock Road. The shows are at 8.00pm each evening until the 14^th March.

                Shy and naive Simon Sparrow (Thomas Walding) is an enthusiastic, first year medical student who has found lodgings in a rundown flat with two other medics. Tony Grimsdyke (Martin Lindsay) is studying for the fun and a ‘degree in tavern and women’ would be more appropriate. His rugby playing friend, John Evans (Lewis Johnson) is slightly more enthusiastic about the course. Vera (Laila Gampfer) a beautiful Sicilian shares Tony’s room, and has her sights set on a permanent relationship. Nurse Riggie Winslow (Molly Sheehan) visits regularly, mainly in search of food, but like all the other nurses, she must make sure that she is not caught in the male students’ rooms by the matriarchal Matron(Judy Pinnock).
                Bromley (Dave Pragnell) is a hospital porter who will do any task required for the students – at a price. Their self-opinionated, bullying professor, Sir Lancelot Spratt (Stuart Riches) has little time for the matron, and so when Simon falls for Janet (Christine Dixon) the trouble really starts.

From the opening curtain a smile came onto the audience’s faces and there it remained for the whole of this play. It is 55 years old and yet could be any student flat today. The cast were wonderful, everyone captured their characters delightfully. Thanks to Jeff Hansen’s quality direction, the pace was brisk and the actions natural. If you are old enough to remember the Dirk Bogarde film, then this production will bring back warm memories. Because the action takes place solely in the student flat, the funniest line in the film was missed –  this was when Simon said to a well-endowed teenager, as he placed his stethoscope on her chest, ‘Big breaths’, the reply ‘Yeth, and I am only sithteen’.

With the operation scene in Act Two and the brush off in Act Three, the laughs flowed freely. Quality delivery of the lines. Great fun.