Radio review: Blithe Spirit

One of the first shows in my diary to get cancelled because of lockdown was the latest revival of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, but as with so many things the BBC comes to the rescue, with a 2008 radio adaptation by Bert Coules returning to the BBC Sounds app. Roger Allam plays Charles, the novelist who hires a local medium in order to copy her language and mannerisms for a fraud in his upcoming book; but Madame Arcati turns out to be the real thing, and after playing her favourite song in the room where she died, his first wife Elvira's (Zoë Waites) ghost materialises. Unfortunately for Charles, only he can see her, which causes much confusion with his second wife Ruth (Hermione Gulliford,) and soon a rivalry causes chaos in the house between the two wives, one of whom is dead, and possibly turning homicidal.

Theatre review: Dear Lupin

This year's meme of real-life families playing their onstage counterparts continues with another father/son pairing, although their characters' relationship is nowhere near as twisted as the one the Shrapnels got to play last month. Billie Piper's in-laws, as they're basically being marketed, play the authors of the book Dear Lupin, adapted for the stage by Michael Simkins: Roger Mortimer (James Fox) was a popular racing journalist and commentator, raised in a family with a butler, and though not quite retaining that level of wealth he maintained an upper-middle class respectability all his life. Not so his youngest son Charles (Jack Fox,) nicknamed Lupin - not after a flower or a werewolf but after the similarly wayward son in The Diary of a Nobody. Expelled from Eton, Lupin travels the world, unfortunately not so much picking up culture as he does addictions and a criminal record.