Last May, as part of Winchester's Best of British Festival in celebration of the Jubilee, Martin Jarvis performed two of Richmal Crompton's comic classics, live on-stage.
William Holds the Stage:In William Holds the Stage, when an old boy of the school gives a lecture on Hamlet, William gets a somewhat confused idea that Shakespeare's plays were written by a man called Ham, and that Shakespeare poisoned Ham, and stole the plays and pretended he had written them. Then a man called Bacon got involved and possibly someone called Eggs as well.
When it's announced that the class will perform a scene from Hamlet in front of a live audience, William decides that, despite being cast as an attendant, he'd prefer to play the leading role himself. But things don't go entirely to plan.
A packed house at the Theatre Royal rocks with laughter as Jarvis performs William's hilariously inventive version of Shakespeare's masterpiece. Just William as 'stand-up'.
Aunt Arabelle in Charge:In Aunt Arabelle in Charge, William and his faithful Outlaws (Ginger, Douglas and Henry) encounter a strangely complacent six year old who is staying in the village. This odious child turns out to be the hugely famous Anthony Martin, subject of his mother's best-selling books and poems.
The Outlaws need to redeem themselves in the admittedly short-sighted eyes of Ginger's journalist aunt. She, equally, is desperate to secure an exclusive interview with the child star. It's soon clear that this wonderfully constructed story is a brilliant parody of - who else - A.A. Milne's Christopher Robin.
The packed Winchester audience understood this at once. In Jarvis' inhabitation of both the smug infant and Ginger's aunt, the comedy is unremitting.
Can William sort this out and, incidentally, give the horrific child his just desserts? Blackmail is the answer, of course.
Performed by Martin Jarvis
Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.
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