Friday 12 June 2020



Watching The Madness of George III - this week's excellent offering from the National Theatre - it suddenly struck me that Mark Gatiss's King must have been inspired by Hogarth's Bedlam scene from the Rake's Progress. (Suddenly struck me? More of a niggling 'why does that look so familiar?' until eventually this image surfaced through the layers of lockdown-rust in my brain!)
It's a terrific performance ... though I think Nigel Hawthorne will always be my favourite George (and Helen Mirren, in the film version as his Queen). I wasn't sure about the female doctors but they grew on me - just about! - by the end.

Another shout-out for the Finborough Theatre who have revived this 1913 melodrama about an independent-minded wife and her feckless husband.  I saw it last summer - the last time I visited the Finborough in person! If I'd ever thought a time would come when I hadn't had a night out for three months ...

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