Review – Our Boys, Duchess Theatre

“Ok, so let me get this straight” fretted Phil as he wrestled to grasp clarity from Andrew over the casting of the military hospital-based play Our Boys.

“The one who lost his toes was in Doctor Who and the one who’d been circumcised was in Harry Potter,” came the barely disguised impatient response.

Phil was up to speed on Laurence Fox. He’s the one in that John Thaw spin-off thingy, married Billie Piper and is the son of James Fox (or perhaps Edward Fox if you saw Lorraine Kelly’s interview on Day-Glo Daybreak which became even more watch-through-your-fingers excruciating as LK exacerbated for her paternity gaff with profuse over-apologising).

Casting settled then and an explanation for the bevy of post-show lurkers at the Duchess Theatre’s stage door: apparently at least half the cast can boast something of a following.

Review – Journey’s End, Duke of York’s Theatre

“Do you think you would have turned to drink?” Andrew enquired of Phil at the interval of Journey’s End. Which led to the Whingers musing on the pros and cons of life in the World War I trenches.

It did seem grim: the food, the cold, the damp, the rats, the exhaustion, the boredom, the constant fear of bombardment or action and never returning to blighty. But Phil”s imagination was conjuring up terrible images far more chilling than anything portrayed on the stage: the bathroom arrangements.

Review – Six Degrees of Separation, Old Vic

The idea that everyone in the world is separated from everyone else by no more than six people must send extra winter chills to the readers of these pages. Imagine being that close to the Whingers.

But for the Whingers it’s a concept that has gained appeal since they started blogging. If you’ve ever had the misfortune to meet a Whinger you can now swank to your friends that you’re only one person away from Mel Brooks, Pamela Anderson, Britt Ekland and Lionel Blair. Imagine how close that puts the Whingers to the movers and shakers of this planet – one away from Megan Mullally, Brian Blessed, Christopher Lee and Sammy Davis Junior (although he’s dead, sadly) and just twice removed from Debbie Reynolds, Topol and President Nixon. And obviously Three Degrees from Prince Charles.

Even for the Whingers it’s a sobering thought.