Following my in depth review of ‘Prescription for Murder’ last week I had a very nice e-mail from the leading lady Julie Kemp-Harper. Apparently Julie hasn’t trod the boards since her teenage years until she won the lead in the play by default. So congratulations are indeed in order for such a polished performance. I look forward to the next Old Gaol production with some relish.

Regular readers will be familiar with my highbrow theatrical tastes and so Victoria Woods’ Dinner Ladies beckoned and we responded with a visit to Cheltenham’s excellent Everyman Theatre last weekend.

As the Oxford Playhouse seldom stage anything I feel a desire to see, I find myself having to scour the schedules of the theatres in Bath, Windsor, Cheltenham and Basingstoke whose seasons are packed with comedies, thrillers, musicals and dramas I could happily sit through. These productions usually play to packed audiences so either I am wrong or the Oxford Playhouse is wrong. Anyway I digress. Dinner Ladies was fabulous. Seldom of late have I watched a production where I have laughed so much in such a short time. The cast only contained two original members from the TV show, Andrew Dunn, the Canteen Manager and Sue Devaney from the shop floor. The others however had obviously studied the mannerisms and voices of the main characters to a very high degree and you could have sworn you were indeed watching Victoria Wood, Julie Walters, Anne Reid, Duncan Preston and Thelma Barlow strutting their stuff.

The play was fast paced from the curtain-up and the set as you would expect was first –rate. The cast looked as though they were enjoying themselves as much as we were and the roller coaster didn’t falter until the final curtain. The play is on a national tour, (not to the Oxford Playhouse of course) if you can catch a performance of this excellent dish-don’t miss it. For further details go to www.dinnerladiesontour.com.

Friday night brought the Oxford Drama Network annual quiz hosted by Didcot Phoenix Drama Group. Now I may not know a lot about many things but Quizzes would be my Mastermind specialist subject after Mark & Spencer’s jumpers 17.99-19.99. So I feel qualified to suggest the ODN quiz this time was probably one of the worst I have ever experienced.

The quizmasters were obviously enjoying themselves and the less said about whoever put the questions together the better. Firstly they didn’t give enough time to think about the answer before galloping on to the next question. The Movies round for instance was ridiculous with most questions relating to films from the early days of the cinema and with no way of knowing the answer unless you are a real movie buff with the need to get out more. Before anyone says ‘Ah yes, you are only rattling on like this because you got a crap score’ you are right our team score very poorly did but so did by far the majority of the teams, always an indication of a crap quiz. Anyway congratulations to the St Peters Players, well deserved winners the cup for 2010. End of whinge.

Now a little tale from the west.

A cowboy, who just moved to Wyoming from Texas, walks into a bar and orders three mugs of Bud. He sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.

The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, "You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time."

The cowboy replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Arizona, the other is in Colorado. When we all left our home in Texas, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself."

The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.

The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn.

One day, he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss."

The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in his eyes and he laughs.

"Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains, "It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking."

"Hasn't affected my brothers though."