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Charles Spencer reviews The Titfield Thunderbolt at Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch
It sounds completely preposterous. With a cast of only five, and Toytown sets, this plucky theatre in unfashionable Hornchurch is attempting to stage one of the most ambitious of the Ealing comedies.
The Titfield Thunderbolt (1952) was the first Ealing comedy to be filmed in Technicolor, and Charles Crichton's production of T E B Clarke's script was shot largely on location. It offers an idyllic vision of rolling English countryside, puffing steam trains and stirring crowd scenes as the Titfield villagers fight to save their beloved branch-line railway from the axe.
Undervalued on its release, it's a film that stands the test of time, proving both funny and touching in its depiction of ordinary people's heroic fight against the interfering bureaucratic powers that be. The picture anticipated the Beeching cuts by a decade and still strikes a potent chord half a century on when we face so much malign meddling from Brussels. I'd put it right up there with Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico, especially since it is blessed with a blissfully funny performance from Stanley Holloway as a rich, gin-guzzling toff who drinks a rousing toast to those great British generals, Gordon and Booth - his mentors and his friends.
But how on earth can you capture all this on stage? The short answer is that you can't, but Bob Carlton's enjoyably chaotic production proves that you can have a lot of fun in trying.
Designer Rodney Ford has come up with ingenious, colourful designs, like giant illustrations from a child's pop-up book, and the cast play as many as five roles apiece, with the help of lightning costume changes, terrible wigs and false beards, and a bewildering variety of comic accents. At one stage the audience is bullied into forming a human chain and passing jugs of water along the stalls when the train runs out of steam thanks to the nefarious activities of the villain of the piece, Vernon Crump, who operates a rival bus service.
I'm sure there will be some who find the show insufferably silly, but I found its dottiness an almost constant pleasure. I particularly enjoyed the attempt to simulate the train's movement by carrying telegraph poles past the carriage windows, and it is surprising how much of the genial spirit of the original survives.
Kate O'Mara, whom age cannot wither nor custom stale, takes to the stage with her amazing cheekbones and preposterous auburn curls to play a character undreamt of in the movie, the posh Lady Edna Chesterford, whose grandfather started the railway. As the going gets tough, this tweedy old trout is much given to lines like "Come on, old girl, empire spirit and that sort of thing", while her diatribe against the interfering little Hitlers who run England with their clipboards memorably captures the subversive spirit of Ealing comedy.
Paul Leonard steps valiantly into Holloway's shoes as that most delightful of tipplers, Mr Valentine, and offers equally good value as the dastardly Crump, while Philip Reed succeeds in a wide variety of roles, from ancient poacher to youthful love interest.
Steven Pinder proves a classic comic English vicar as the steam-fixated Rev Sam Weech, and there is a delightful performance from Loveday Smith as his spirited niece who brings the reassuringly wholesome atmosphere of the 1950s on to the stage whenever she enters.
The production could undoubtedly do with a touch more spit and polish, but for collectors of cherishable English comedy, this show is a real find.
At Hornchurch until Sept 17 (01708 443333), then touring to Coventry, Windsor and Eastbourne.
Daily Telegraph - 2nd Septemeber 2005
With thanks to Philip Goulding (the writer)
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