Whitehall farce

[15] Rix starred in all five plays, in a range of roles: a "gormless recruit" to the army in Reluctant Heroes;[16] a timidly crooked bookie's runner in Dry Rot;[17] a street musician recruited as a secret agent in Simple Spymen;[18] four identical brothers in One For the Pot;[19] and a harassed civil servant in Chase Me, Comrade.

[21] Although the five plays constituting the Whitehall farces had long runs and the theatres usually had full houses, the majority of London critics were dismissive of them.

Writing in the Financial Times in 1980, Michael Coveney commented: "A tradition of critical snobbery has grown up around these plays, partly because they were so blatantly popular but chiefly because of our conviction that farce, unless written by a Frenchman, is an inferior theatrical species.

Once the National Theatre has done its duty by Priestley and Rattigan and others teetering on the brink of theatrical respectability I suggest they employ Mr. Rix … to investigate the ignored riches of English farce between Travers and Ayckbourn.

[30] In 1976, Rix returned to the Whitehall with Fringe Benefits (Donald Churchill and Cooney) which ran until 1977 when he retired from the stage.