- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Laurence Joyce
In Wimbledon week, Martyn Wade offers this comic fantasy based on a disagreement that took place between the Earl of Oxford and the young Philip Sidney on a tennis court in 1578. Insults are traded and, to satisfy honour, it is arranged that Sidney and Oxford should play a game of tennis, a game, it turns out, that will decide whether or not Queen Elizabeth (played deliciously by Celia Imrie) should marry the Duke of Anjou.
The match itself is a riotous satire on the modern game, complete with grunting serves and McEnroe-style appeals to the line judges, but there is also skulduggery afoot, involving an early dish of strawberries and cream.
About this programme
Singles and Doublets. Martyn Wade's comedy takes as its theme a famous tennis match between Elizabethan rivals the Earl of Oxford and Philip Sidney. Having failed to satisfy an argument with a more traditional duel, the pair resort to a five-set game in front of Queen Elizabeth - the outcome of which will determine not only personal pride but the marital fate of the monarch, as she decrees that proposed nuptials with a French duke will only take place if Oxford wins. Celia Imrie (Queen Elizabeth), Alex Jennings (Simier), David Troughton (Earl of Leicester), Nicholas Boulton (Earl of Oxford), Thom Tuck (Philip Sidney), Michael Maloney (Duke of Anjou), Geoffrey Whitehead (Crick), Philip Fox (Benjamin), Carl Prekopp (William), Nick Saunter (Spectator).
Cast and crew
Cast
- Queen Elizabeth
- Celia Imrie
- Simier
- Alex Jennings
- Earl of Leicester
- David Troughton
- Earl of Oxford
- Nicholas Boulton
- Philip Sidney
- Thom Tuck
- Duke of Anjou
- Michael Maloney
- Crick
- Geoffrey Whitehead
- Benjamin
- Philip Fox
- William
- Carl Prekopp
- Spectator
- Nick Saunter
Crew
- Director
- Cherry Cookson
- Executive Producer
- Matt Thompson
- Writer
- Martyn Wade
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