Britain's favourite grumpy old man Richard Wilson who played victor Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave is to star in the Theatre Royal's final Summer Season production A Little Hotel on the Side.
Richard will play the role of Basiten in the play which is being directed by Lindsay Posner and Cal McCrystal.
Adapted by John Mortimer, this hilarious comedy by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Désvallières will appear at the Theatre Royal Bath from Thursday, August 15 to Saturday, August 31.
Known to millions as Victor Meldrew and, recently, for his role as Gaius in five series of BBC1's Merlin, Richard has a long and distinguished career as both an actor and director on television, film and stage.
He has twice been awarded the BAFTA for Best Actor and was the winner of the British Comedy Awards Top Television Comedy Actor. He last performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in Whipping It Up in 2007.
Richard McCabe, already confirmed to play Monsieur Pinglet in the same play comes to Bath direct from winning an Olivier Award for his role as Harold Wilson in one of the West End's biggest hits of recent years, The Audience, opposite Dame Helen Mirren.
His many credits with the RSC include A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Othello and The Winter's Tale and he also starred in the West End in Yes, Prime Minister.
Set in 19th century Paris, Monsieur Pinglet and his neighbour's wife, Marcelle, attempt to get their affair underway by discreetly taking a room at an obscure hotel.
But far from the quiet evening of amour they had anticipated, they encounter half of Paris here, including most of their relatives and the Inspector of Public Morality!
This side-splitting work from the supreme master of traditional farce contains all the classic ingredients – thwarted passion, spiralling panic and a hotel where the corridors see more action than the beds – in a completely hilarious evening of mistaken identities and sexual innuendo.
John Mortimer's witty, ribald and stylish translation remains true to the Feydeau spirit. The creator of Rumpole and author of A Voyage Round My Father, his version of Feydeau's A Flea in her Ear was performed at the National Theatre in 1966 and A Little Hotel on the Side played there in 1984 to great acclaim.
The Summer Season is now well under way with the second of the plays, George Bernard Shaw's Candida running until Saturday, July 20.
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