A Night Like This (play)

The farces were directed by Tom Walls, who co-starred in most of them with Ralph Lynn, and a supporting cast of regular Aldwych performers.

The first four in the series, It Pays to Advertise, A Cuckoo in the Nest, Rookery Nook and Thark had long runs, averaging more than 400 performances each.

The regular company of supporting actors included 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.

Her boyfriend, Aubrey – nephew of the real owner of the necklace – is too ineffectual to help, but she gains three champions in the form of Mrs Decent, Clifford Tope and Police Constable Michael Marsden.

Marsden is cornered in the gambling den by two of the gang and puts up a strong fight, which he wins with ease when Tope appears through the window armed with a poker and lays out the assailants (see picture above).