OUT OF ORDER, THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW

CLOTHES fell off, towels got stuck in doors, dead bodies were hung up inside cupboards and windows fell spontaneously, knocking out unsuspecting hotel guests.

It was a plot right out of the 70s and it really should have stayed there.

The sexist overtones were rife. Surely we don’t have to ignore an actress’s talents and make her strip to her underwear for cheap laughs. Former Footballers’ Wives actress Susie Amy deserved much better than this.

But farce is like that; it gets stuck in a time warp without any hope of recovery. But if done properly and acted well it can still work.

And there is no doubt Shaun Williamson as the hapless parliamentary private secretary George Pigden was a real boon.

Quite how he followed what was going on as his boss, junior minister Richard Willey, twisted and turned to prevent himself getting caught in flagrante delicto with an opposition secretary was as much a mystery as the plot.

Williamson held the whole thing together and added a real warmth to the production – a cross between Are You Being Served? and Carry on Camping.

Disappointingly, Andrew Hall – who should have played Willey – was replaced at the last minute by Jeff Harmer. Harmer was perfectly competent as the sleazy Tory minister but perhaps Hall would have added a bit more upper middle class berk to the proceedings.

The lovely Sue Holderness as his wife Pamela was enjoyably dotty with more than a passing nod to her Fools and Horses alter ego.

There were humorous characterisations from Miranda actor James Holmes and former ’Allo ’Allo policeman Arthur Bostrom.

There were up-to-the-minute references in this 1990 script – with namechecks for Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May and Pigden commenting about “voting Labour on June 8”.

The audience, with an average age of about 70, had plenty of laughs – probably because it reminded them of the shows of their youth.

VIVIENNE AITKEN