... She Stoops to Conquer BELFAST THE FASHION for updating classics has been merrily followed by David Grant in his direction of Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer at Belfast's Lyric Players Theatre. H areas tie's drilling of his awkward staff has been omitted but is amply compensated for in Tim Loane's cunning, roguish Lumpkin. He elicited real fun even from the carriage upset in the dark garden. ...

... Satisfying tales from the sitting room GLOBE The Winslow Boy THE WINSLOW Boy is a play by Terence Rattigan in which one can search in vain for coded messages. Here the point is made loud and clear-- it is a tenet of British justice that however insignificant the crime, in this case the alleged unlawful cashing of a five shilling postal order by a 14-year-old naval cadet, the accused has a ...

... The Well of the Saints EDINBURGH DIRECTOR Patrick Mason's decision to update this play shows firstly in the impact of the set. It is a devastated landscape. Far from the green of rural Ireland, it seems a nowhere place, stark and barren, a stricken setting for stricken times. More than anything we are in Beckett country, intentionally, as Mason has declared this a deliberate gesture to ...

... Two Weeks With The Queen SCARBOROUGH ADAPTED from the best selling novel by Morris Gleitzman, Two Weeks with The Queen had its European premiere to great acclaim at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and it proved to be a master piece in acting and direction. It is highly entertaining, slick, very funny, and brilliantly written by Mary Morris yet despite its wonderfully humorous script deals with two ...

... Sohni Mahiwal BRENTFORD LONDON Arts Board's £20,000 grant from the Collaborations Fund was well spent on this spectacular open air production which united diverse art forms and cultures, bringing the sights and sounds of Punjabi theatre and Kathak dance to the Watermans river front. The traditional Indian fable, adapted by director Harmage Singh Kalirai with jazz inflected music from an ...

... There's nothing new to detect here except a change of scenery! By MOIRA PETTY GOOD intentions no doubt paved the road to St Petersburg down which the new detective series Grushko (Mark Forstater Production for BBC1 and Europool, March 24, Thursday, 9.30pm) stumbled. It was like watching the proverbial thin man struggling to get out of the fat man. At heart, Grushko was a rather soulful ...

... All feelings smothered by Jill Weekes IN THE final episode of the documentary series The Family, Margaret Wilkins quoted a fiercely hostile letter. If the BBC must make such programmes at all, why couldn't it choose a socially superior family, preferably with high ideals? Because, retorted Marian Wilkins, this would be boring. An encounter with the Tashkovs (The Childhood Friend., pm). Play ...

... Hurt Hawks Centre Play, BBC-2, Monday, February 11, 9.30 WITH Seth Walter. Toby, Captain Burgess and the peace and sunshine of a First World War English summer, Boy's Own and Cold Comfort Farm seem to have joined forces. Toby and Captain Burgess are pilots, the hurt hawks of the title, convalescing after injury at the Front and soon to be sent back there. Peter Everett's play was disap ...

... Lucky Granada, Tuesday, February 5, 9.0 TO SAY that I found Lucky an absorbing, interesting and enjoyable play would be technically incorrect. It was in fact a film, or, as the Americans put it, a feature film made for television. But whereas most US products under this label are updated versions of Republic and Allied Artists programmers, as examplified by Suspected Person shown earlier ...

... Violent nights By HARRY VENNING GUARDIANS of the nation's morals were doubtless as alarmed as I was this week by a programme that featured shocking violence, transvestitism and the romanticising of outlaws as heroes. But more about Just William later. First, to more pernicious criminals, real and fictional. Open Fire (LWT, Saturday, November 12, 9 pm) told the story of armed robber David ...

... Dogspot SOUTHAMPTON IN AN era when family values are being held up as a universal salve, Claire Luckham's new play at the Nuffield Theatre conies as a timely reminder that families can destroy as well as nurture. To begin with, admittedly, Dogspot seems to be endorsing the strength of family ties as, after a house fire, a 13- year-old girl is entrusted to the care of her two aunts. To their ...

... Christmas Cat and the Pudding Pirates BERWICK-UPON-TWEED AS A confirmed panto sceptic, most of my enjoyment of such events stems from watching the delight of the youngsters in the audience. That accounts for my decision to attend a school performance of Christmas Cat and the Pudding Pirates at The Maltings in Berwick. Now 9.30am on a bitterly-cold win ter's day may not seem the ideal time to ...