THE fourth and final play in Ian Dickens’ summer repertory season at the Civic Theatre, in Darlington, is Philip King’s Fifties farce Pools Paradise.

Author of Sailor Beware and Big Bad Mouse, King throws in all the well-loved ingredients of a decent farce – a frustrated spinster pursuing the unwilling object of her affections, a wellmeaning wife, bewildered husband, gormless staff, lost trousers and everyone dashing in and out of cupboards.

Vicar’s wife Penelope Toop (Kathryn Dimery) is persuaded by her domestic, Ida (an extremely shrill Julia Main), to have a flutter on the football pools.

Ida’s boyfriend Willie, played by good-looking former EastEnder Frankie Fitzgerald, announces that he thinks they have won a huge ammount of money, but he needs to check the coupon against the Sunday paper.

Enter the Reverend Arthur Humphrey, brought in to conduct the Sunday service, who also has a pools coupon to check. I expect you can see where this is going.

Lovers of farce will have a whale of a time as Penelope’s husband, Lionel, tries to evade the amorous Miss Skillon, the Sunday lunch is ruined and a visit from the Bishop is imminent.

As we’ve come to expect, Ian Dickens has assembled an experienced and familiar cast – Ben Roberts as the Bishop, David Janson as the Rev Humphrey and David Callister as the Rev Toop are an unlikely group of clerics, and Helen Jeckells’ Miss Skillon with her gung ho attitude to courtship literally scares the pants off the Vicar. It’s all tremendous fun, and thoroughly enjoyable with some laugh-out-loud moments.

■ Until Saturday July 4.

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