Backstairs Billy review

Flawless performances from Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans.

Backstairs Billy with Luke Evans and Penelope Wilton - in rehearsals

Rehearsal images have been revealed for the world premiere of Marcelo Dos Santos's play Backstairs Billy, exploring a significant moment in the 50-year relationship between the Queen Mother and her loyal servant, William "Billy" Tallon.

Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans to star in new West End play Backstairs Billy

Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans will star in a new comedy penned by Marcelo Dos Santos, titled Backstairs Billy.

Following the relationship between the Queen Mother (Wilton) and her loyal manservant, the titular Billy (Evans), during the 1979 tumult in the UK, the play is directed by Michael Grandage.

One of the best comic adaptations you've not heard of

In 2010, comic book movies were already big, but it would be two years before the first Avengers movie would hit theaters and they became an unstoppable force. So it was an ideal time for Tamara Drewe, a movie that was, and still very much is, an exception to the rules of the genre.

Last episode in the current run of Ross's chatshow. As is often the case, it's a thinly veiled plug for an upcoming movie, in this case the imminent Eddie The Eagle. Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman both appear, just in case we hadn't quite got the message from their earlier encounter with Ant & Dec. Plugging another new film - an adaptation of JG Ballard's High-Rise - is Luke Evans. Comedian Shazia Mirza is also on the bill, and there's music from Primal Scream, touting their hilariously titled new album, Chaosmosis.

Frears and screenwriter Moira Buffini make a funny, touching and witty film out of Posy Simmonds' marvellous cartoon strip that spatchcocks awful middle-class country life. Gemma Arterton is a delightful Tamara Drewe, the young woman who returns to her native west country village with a nose-job, micro-shorts and an ambition to write a chicklit blockbuster; she understandably stirs up the passions of ex-boyfriend Andy (Luke Evans), pop star Ben (Dominic Cooper) and slimy middle-aged philanderer Nicholas (Roger Allam).