Theatre review: 4000 Days

Peter Quilter's 4000 Days opens with Michael (Alistair McGowan) in a coma, following a blood clot on the brain. He spends three weeks unconscious, but when he wakes up he's lost more time than that: The action takes place in the present day but he thinks it's 2005, having forgotten the last 11 years. The most obvious loss is his entire relationship with his boyfriend - he only met Paul (Daniel Weyman) ten years ago, so when Michael wakes up he's a stranger. Following the doctors' advice, Paul tries to help his partner slowly get to grips with the missing decade, but Michael's mother Carol (Maggie Ollerenshaw) sees this as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start again: She never liked Paul, whose relationship with her son was always rocky, and she intends to take full advantage of the fact that he's been erased from his memory. The two end up in a tug-of-war over Michael's affections and memories.

Theatre review: An Audience with Jimmy Savile

When a show bills itself as controversial long before it's even opened, and withholds photos of Alistair McGowan in character so as not to cause distress*, it's a fairly safe bet that the controversy is manufactured to attract attention. But the first drama to deal with a sexual predator who hid in plain sight was bound to raise questions over whether it was too soon, and the Park's main house was packed for the matinee of An Audience with Jimmy Savile. McGowan plays the notorious rapist, paedophile, necrophile and close personal friend of Margaret Thatcher, whose crimes were long-rumoured but never made public until after his death. The 1970s DJ and TV presenter was instead treated to decades of sycophantic behaviour for his popularity and charity work, regularly referred to as a National Treasure and knighted by both the Queen and the Pope. As the title suggests, Jonathan Maitland's play takes as its starting point just that unquestioning respect, framing the show as a TV special.