Director's Commentary  Brian Clemens is better known for his TV work on The Avengers and The Professionals so I was certain that this would be a solid script. And it was. It was also a good, solid production. Not exceptional, not terrible, just good. And it wasn't really necessary for the men to be called Dave to get a part in this play, honest. I had cast Matthew in the part of Hardy but he dropped out to concentrate on his law exams. He's now head of Legal Services at East Riding of Yorkshire Council so it was obviously worth it! As there was no-one else available, I had to take the part myself asking Val to give me a hand with directing as I’m a firm believer in directors not casting themselves in large parts (unless there's no other option). Something has to give and either the director's performance or the play as a whole tends to suffer. 
Dave Barber loved this one, though! He got to eat loads of  trifle and all we could hear backstage was his spoon scraping every last bit out of the bowl. Getting his lines out came a poor second. Joanne wasn’t so keen but she didn't let it affect her performance, except for the bit where she had to speak Russian and attack the portrait over the fireplace with a kitchen knife which no amount of work on my part could make at all convincing David

Quote, Unquote  My memories of this play? All that food. Dave Barber pulling the curtains on the last night and jiggering the lighting. Fab performances with a really dramatic play Sharon
Food, food, food - a nightmare for stage management Betty

Was I In That One?  As well as Matthew leaving, Dave Round, cast in the (very) small part of a policeman, dropped out after the first dress rehearsal! A quick bit of rewriting covered the gap left by his character.

The Audience Won't Notice  The smell of damp from the set, part of which dated from the good old days of Love’s A Luxury and was still going strong. Very, very strong!