In 1999 I worked on End Game at the Nottingham Playhouse with the National Theatre Of Brent's director Martin Duncan.
I first saw Love Upon The Throne, and it was magnificent. It was all about the relationship between Charles and Diana - very sensitive, tasteful and not at all scurrilous. I'm often the first person to be offended by that sort of thing. They did a TV series called Massive Landmarks Of The 20th Century which was horrendously overlooked by Channel 4.
They're unique and difficult to categorise. For a start, there's just two of them, Patrick Barlow and John Ramm, who took over from Jim Broadbent - a hard act to follow. Desmond Olivier Dingle, who Barlow plays, is a gifted amateur actor - very straight and earnest. John's character, Raymond Box, is a bumbling enthusiast. The comedy arises from their language.
Like French And Saunders, they have that ability to get laughs from being deliberately bad. They take on huge topics which are really quite unsuitable. I love the way they never pronounce the 'g' on the end of words and come out with strange North London constructions ? like railway announcers trying to be posh.
There's also a physicality to the acting as they have to carry weighty themes which are way out of reach - and show their slight lack of intelligence. They get things wrong. For example, Broadbent used to refer to Austrians in the war as Australians. There are lots of loud onstage whispers so we laugh at them but we empathise too because everyone makes those mistakes. It being the National Theatre Of Brent, they're up against it financially. They have so many characters to play that John might exit stage left as a man and hurriedly enter stage right as a woman, but only with the addition of a bonnet.
I haven't seen The Wonder Of Sex but my guess is it will be full of embarrassment yet tastefully done. There is no room for smut in Brent.
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