Another Frank Randle stormer. He’s now in the centre of the dramatic plot, as a kindly old janitor going after a troubled schoolgirl who runs away to be a dancer on the London stage, and is finally revealed to be his daughter. The Formby-esque emotional final scenes are fairly well handled by Randle, but as ever the set pieces are the important factor, and when they work they work well indeed. Randle gives a demented (and very Ken Dodd-like) comedy lecture on the cow, with the help of a life-sized electric prop heifer operated by Dan Young. ‘Now, you will see the cow is a very large animal, but not quite as large as a bigger one of the same size. The cow has a leg at each corner, and several other appendages that we need not go into at the moment.’ Dan Young and Alec Pleon complement him beautifully for an almost balletic coal-shovelling three-hander routine in the boiler room. Welsh star Maudie Edwards is a grand female foil as Bella Donna the school cook, halfway between Tessie O’Shea’s permanent mardiness and Somewhere in Civvies star Mrs Spam’s incessant randiness.
