The Master of Bankdam

Veteran West End farceur Tom Walls in the title role adopts enormous sidewhiskers and a northern accent in this departure also uncharacteristic of it's director Walter Forde (another comedy veteran), based on the bestselling historical novel by Thomas Armstrong.

A sort of nineteenth century 'Power Game' shot in the twentieth and, alas, still relevant to the twentieth-first in it's critique of the sheer incomprehension and indifference of the 1% to the way their activities impact upon the lives of the 99%; their venal corner-cutting leading to catastrophe. (The impact on the mill of the McKinley Tariff of 1890 also highlights the continued vulnerability of the British economy to decisions taken in Washington.)

Tortoise Dennis Price and hare Stephen Murray are eventually succeeded by the young Tommy Handley, whose own son ironically became a Tory M.P.