BBC Radio 4, 23 July 2012
Jill Adams' helter-skelter romantic comedy focuses on two of life's misfits.
Ron (George Costigan) runs a local chip-shop, but when his wife Pat dies, he loses his enthusiasm for the job and his business
suffers thereby. Elaine (Katy Wix) spends much of her life caring for her infirm father (Steffan Rhodri), while coping with
a chronic sense of insecurity due to her inability to read properly.
Both them enrol in classes at the local night-school: Ron takes cookery, while Elaine
basic reading and writing skills. However neither of them likes to admit to their own inadequacies, so when they meet for
the first time, they pretend they are taking more exotic classes. Ron claims that he is learning to be a stand-up comic, while
Elaine studies belly-dancing. Needless to say their facades are soon punctured, and they are left to face the consequences,
while attempting to pursue a tentative relationship.
Add to the mix a crazy friend Keith (Richard Nichols) with a penchant for hunting
UFOs, and a chip shop assistant Linda (Claire Cage) who remains solidly her own woman, despite the drudgery of her job, and
you have a recipe for an entertaining comedy. Some of the humour was a little stereotypical, of the "eee bah gum" type,
with the characters speaking broad Yorksher (much to Elaine's distaste), but Polly Thomas' production proved entertaining
on the whole.
