A Cup of Kindness (play)

Travers made a film adaptation, which Walls directed in 1934, with some of the leading members of the stage cast reprising their roles.

Walls assembled a regular company of actors to fill the supporting roles, including Robertson Hare, who played a figure of put-upon respectability; Mary Brough in eccentric old lady roles; Ethel Coleridge as the severe voice of authority; Winifred Shotter as the sprightly young female lead; and the saturnine Gordon James.

For A Cup of Kindness, he turned his attention to middle class suburban life and petty snobbery.

The Ramsbothams have their own family embarrassment: Ernest's unhinged uncle Nicholas who lives in their attic, looked after by a flighty nurse, Tilly.

Betty and Charlie separately wheedle their fathers; Ernest is won over, and Fred seems on the point of giving in when his younger son, Stanley, arrives.

In fact, Charlie, well-meaning but naïve, has no idea what goes on at Jim Finch's firm, where he is a junior partner.

Before Charlie is driven away to Bow Street police station, a furious row breaks out between the elder Rambothams and Tutts.

They agree – Ernest with some reluctance – that if he sells the shares at a profit to Fred he can conscientiously give evidence in favour of Jim and his firm.

The commotion is interrupted by the sound of Big Ben striking midnight on the radio, and, à la New Year's Eve, Charlie starts singing Auld Lang Syne; one by one, realising the futility of their feud, the family members join in until they have all linked hands and are singing together.

[8] In The Observer, St John Ervine thought that the cast and the author showed signs of fatigue, but he allowed that the piece was "immensely entertaining in parts".

Travers wrote the screenplay, and Walls, Lynn, Hare and James reprised their old stage roles.

[11] In 1970, the BBC televised a new production of the play, with Arthur Lowe and Richard Briers in the Walls and Lynn roles.