The original television series, Duty Free, only ran for two years from 1984 to 1986 but, so good was the writing and acting, that the programme regularly attracted 12 million viewers, none of whom seemed to notice that the two week holiday in Spain, on which the entire show is based, seemed to be lasting for a very long time.
The TV show was a farce about two working-class Northerners, David and Amy Pearce, (Keith Barron and Gwen Taylor) enjoying their first trip to Spain. There they meet posh Southerners, Robert and Linda Cochran (Neil Stacy and Joanna Van Gyseghem), and David and Linda decide that they are in love, mainly because he pretends to be a lot more worldly than he really is.
There’s lots of hiding in wardrobes and romantic interludes rudely interrupted, mostly by Amy, who’s determined to keep David from straying by constantly outwitting him whilst, all the while, Robert remains blissfully oblivious to the whole thing.
Now, nearly 30 years later, three of the original cast and Eric Chappell, the original writer, have re-united to bring us Last of the Duty Free. The new show picks up the story when David bumps into Linda at a train station in England and the two plan a secret rendezvous at the Spanish hotel where their frustrated love affair first started, but then their spouses get suspicious and all four find themselves back in Spain.
The set, although of a very good quality, is just a little crowded, but recreating an entire Spanish hotel on the stage at the Devonshire Park was never going to be an easy task. Subtle changes in lighting not only take us from night to day, but also serve to emphasise different areas of the set which, to a certain extent, also helps to create a feeling of extra space on the busy stage.
There is a certain air of apprehension in the auditorium as the audience wonder if the 80’s TV series can be successfully transferred to the stage three decades later but, from the moment that Keith Barron takes to the stage, it is very obvious that faithfully re-creating the original show is paramount and the audience soon relaxes into it.
Carol Royle has taken over the role of Linda for the tour, as Joanna Van Gyseghem has just become grandmother to twins and wished to spend time at home with them. Royle steps into Linda’s shoes perfectly and the chemistry of “forbidden fruit” between her and Barron works very well indeed.
Neil Stacy is still the epitome of a pompous English gentleman but, in the new stage show, his character is now full of 30 years of bitterness and resentment that a working class Northerner should have had such an effect on his wife all those years ago.
Stealing the show with a succession of perfectly delivered one-liners is Gwen Taylor as Amy. She positively dominates the stage whenever she appears and she makes the most of Chappell’s superb script. The combination of feistiness and vulnerability that worked so well on TV, works equally well on the live stage and she gets the lion’s share of the laughter.
Despite their combined age now approaching 300, the four main characters ease their way through a very enjoyable production with a combination of slapstick, mistaken identities and subtle innuendo, in fact, all the elements that made the original TV show such a massive hit and what makes the live show such a wonderful addition to the original storyline.
**** 4 stars
