Reviews
Reviews
RAY
COONEY
Run For Your Wife
RUN FOR YOUR WIFE! by Ray Cooney opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1983 at the same time as he formed the Theatre of Comedy there, and included in its roll of honour are such names as Richard Briers, Bernard Cribbins, James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Ian Ogilvy, Terry Scott, Lionel Jeffries, Henry McGee, Stratford Johns, Bill Pertwee, Windsor Davies, Ralph Bates, Jack Watling, Sophie Lawrence, Una Stubbs, Aimi Macdonald, Ian Lavender, Robin Askwith and Britt Ekland. “We changed the cast every three months so we could get interesting TV names to fit it in between their TV series,” said Ray, “and it was a very happy time. We had about 20 different casts over a period of twelve years in the West End, and a lot of people came back to do it again because it was such fun.”
One of the regulars during the play’s 25-year history has been Eric Sykes who probably played Porterhouse more than anyone, and formed a Porterhouse club for fellow actors such as Alfred Marks, Lionel Jeffries and Dennis Ramsden, who played the detective sergeant over the years. It is still touring the country 25 years on! Ray himself is no stranger to the cast list. He both acted in and directed the play on Broadway, appeared in it in Florida and, more recently, ‘had such fun’ playing Bobby in a cruise ship production. “Acting for me is an indulgence,” he added.
Ray describes each of his 20 stage comedies as ‘the most enjoyable when it’s your ‘baby’ and you are in that stage of production’, but says that because of the length of its London run, RUN FOR YOUR WIFE! is perhaps the best known. “To me it seems to be one of my most recent plays; I can’t believe it’s 26 years since we first tried it out in Guildford. But there have been over 500 productions of it all over the world, from America and Canada to Argentina and South Korea and Iceland to Australia, while the number of performances over the years must run into the hundreds of thousands. And it’s been translated into 35 languages… Japanese, Chinese, Russian. French, German, Spanish, Italian. It would be easier to say which languages it hasn’t been performed in. “I wrote farce because I was an actor who appeared in a lot of farces and I did not realise how much I had learned,” he continued. “To write my kind of plays you need to understand what it’s like to be on stage.”
YVONNE ARNAUD THEATRE
Mary Smith - Carol Hawkins
Barabara Smith - Helen Gill
John Smith - Ray Cooney
DS Troughton - Peter Blake
Stanley Gardener - Royce Mills
Reporter - Arthur Bostrom
DS Porterhouse - Bill Pertwee
Bobby Franklyn - Jimmy Thompson
Lady Visitor - Jan Goodman
Mary Smith - Carol Hawkins
Barabara Smith - Helen Gill
John Smith - James Bolam
DS Troughton - Sam Cox
Stanley Gardener - Ian Ogilvy
Reporter - Stuart Sherwin
DS Porterhouse - Stratford Johns
Bobby Franklyn - Royce Mills
Mary Smith - Jacki Piper
Barabara Smith - Anita Graham
John Smith - Derek Fowlds
DS Troughton - Sam Cox
Stanley Gardener - Royce Mills
Reporter - Paul Ratcliffe
DS Porterhouse - Alfred Marks
Bobby Franklyn - Brian Godfrey
Mary Smith - Linda Hayden
Barabara Smith - Helen Gill
John Smith - David McCallum
DS Troughton - Gareth Hunt
Stanley Gardener - Derek Griffiths
Reporter - Gregory Phillips
DS Porterhouse - Windsor Davies
Bobby Franklyn - David Masterman
Mary Smith - Jacqueline Clarke
Barabara Smith - Judy Graham
John Smith - Terry Scott
DS Troughton - Ron Aldridge
Stanley Gardener - Derek Griffiths
Reporter - Michael Cotterill
DS Porterhouse - Eric Sykes
Bobby Franklyn - Paul Toothill
Mary Smith - Tricia Thorns
Barabara Smith - Carolyn Lister
John Smith - Ray Cooney
DS Troughton - Ron Aldridge
Stanley Gardener - Ian Talbot
Reporter - Michael Cotterill
DS Porterhouse - Windsor Davies
Bobby Franklyn - Brian Godfrey
Mary Smith - Kay Walbye
Barabara Smith - Hilary Labow
John Smith - Ray Cooney
DS Troughton - Gareth Hunt
Stanley Gardener - Henry McGee
Reporter - Doug Stender
DS Porterhouse - Dennis Ramsden
Bobby Franklyn - Gavin Reed
Mary Smith - Kay Walbye
Barabara Smith - Hilary Labow
John Smith - Ray Cooney
DS Troughton - Gareth Hunt
Stanley Gardener - Paxton Whitehead
Reporter - Doug Stender
DS Porterhouse - Dennis Ramsden
Bobby Franklyn - Gavin Reed
Jeffrey Holland
David Callister
Sophie Lawrence
Eric Potts
Nick Wilton
Nicola Boyce
Terry O'Sullivan
Mary Smith - Carol Hawkins
Barabara Smith - Helen Gill
John Smith - Richard Briers
DS Troughton - Peter Blake
Stanley Gardener - Bernard Cribbins
Reporter - Sam Cox
DS Porterhouse - Bill Pertwee
Bobby Franklyn - Royce Mills
Mary Smith - Anna Dawson
Barabara Smith - Helen Gill
John Smith - Terry Scott
DS Troughton - Sam Cox
Stanley Gardener - Eric Sykes
Reporter - Stuart Sherwin
DS Porterhouse - Bill Pertwee
Bobby Franklyn - Royce Mills
Mary Smith - Patricia Brake
Barabara Smith - Helen Gill
John Smith - Ralph Bates
DS Troughton - Ron Aldridge
Stanley Gardener - Brian Murphy
Reporter - Michael Boothe
DS Porterhouse - Lionel Jeffries
Bobby Franklyn - Graham Jones
Mary Smith - Una Stubbs
Barabara Smith - Aimi MacDonald
John Smith - Ray Cooney
DS Troughton - Gareth Hunt
Stanley Gardener - John Quayle
Reporter - John Hughes
DS Porterhouse - Dennis Ramsden
Bobby Franklyn - Royce Mills
Mary Smith - Carol Hawkins
Barabara Smith - Lorraine Chase
John Smith - Ralph Bates
DS Troughton - Ron Aldridge
Stanley Gardener - Terry Scott
Reporter - John Hughes
DS Porterhouse - Windsor Davies
Bobby Franklyn - Barrie Gosney
Mary Smith - Jacqueline Clarke
Barabara Smith - Judy Graham
John Smith - Terry Scott
DS Troughton - Ron Aldridge
Stanley Gardener - Leslie Lawton
Reporter - Michael Cotterill
DS Porterhouse - Eric Sykes
Bobby Franklyn - Paul Toothill
Mary Smith - Carol Hawkins
Barabara Smith - Heather Alexander
John Smith - Jeffrey Holland
DS Troughton - Ken Farrington
Stanley Gardener - Paul Shane
Reporter - Michael Boothe
DS Porterhouse - Windsor Davies
Bobby Franklyn - Brian Godfrey
Mary Smith - Jan Hunt
Barabara Smith - Maya Woolfe
John Smith - Rodney Bewes
DS Troughton - Anthony Verner
Stanley Gardener - Barry Killerby
Reporter - Paul Barker
DS Porterhouse - Christopher Scoular
Bobby Franklyn - Graham James
Eric Sykes
Robin Askwith
Britt Ekland
Ian Lavender
Ron Aldridge
Kate O'Sullivan
Brian Godfrey