Enter squeaky-voiced comic Joe Pasquale. While the beret, trench coat and tank top are all present and correct, Pasquale creates his own version of the character.
His comic timing and verbal dexterity are faultless and his tongue-twisting explanations for his outrageous behaviour raise cheers from the audience.
Written and directed by Guy Unsworth, the production captures the spirit of Raymond allen’s original sitcom with the addition of an absurd plot involving Frank’s conjuring act, an audition for a BBC talent show, a lost ring and the attempts of his wife Betty (Sarah Earnshaw) to tell him she is pregnant.
Cue long conversations at cross purposes, further complicated by Frank’s malapropisms (“look at this phone bill! it’s anatomical!”) and accidents like knocking out a TV cameraman and his mother-in-law Barbara (Susie Blake) who has been hitting the prune wine.
The deliberately wobbly 1970s set comes with mismatching patterned wallpaper, posters of Engelbert Humperdinck, Bruce Forsyth and Jesus, collapsing shelves, leaky plumbing and electrics that fizz, pop and spurt at inappropriate moments.
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It is silly and endearing and it made me laugh out loud.
Yet underneath the mayhem is the sense of a genuine relationship between Frank and Betty, particularly in the closing scenes when Pasquale and Earnshaw dial down the comedy and behave like a real couple on the verge of parenthood.
Ooh Betty!
Richmond Theatre (UK tour until July 28). Tickets: somemothersdoaveem.com/