Odd couple for Doctor In The House play

Fifties comedy hit Doctor in the House is being revived for the stage – featuring the unlikely duo of Joe Pasquale and Robert Powell.

The play is based on Richard Gordon’s comic novels – which inspired the 1954 film Doctor in the House which made a star of Drik Bogarde, and spawned six sequels and an ITV sitcom.

The play opens at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, on March 20 – the first of 14 week-long stint at theatres across the UK.

Pasquale, 50, stars as a hapless ‘young’ medical student, facing constant run-ins with the irascible head surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt, played by Powell, at the fictional St Swithin’s Teaching Hospital in London

Pasquale said: ‘I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to do, as I’ll be appearing alongside one of my idols, Robert Powell. What a legend! The 39 Steps, Jesus of Nazareth, The Survivor, Asylum, The Detectives… Now that’s a proper actor – looks like I’m going to be in good company.’

The cast also includes Emma Barton, who played Honey Mitchell in Eastenders for three years and Tom Butcher who was PC Steve Loxton in The Bill.

The dates are:

March 20-25:  Churchill Theatre, Bromley
March 26-31: Theatre Royal, Windsor
April 2-7:  Malvern Festival Theatre  
 April 10-15: Nottingham Theatre Royal      
April 16-21: Kings Theatre Southsea  
April 23-28: Venue Cymru, Llandudno
April 30-May 5: Chelmsford, Civic Theatre
May 21-26 Richmond Theatre
May 29-June 2: Theatre Royal Plymouth 
June 11-16:  Grand Theatre Wolverhampton  
June 18-23: New Brighton Floral Pavillion
June 25-30:  Theatre Royal Newcastle
July 2-9: Cambridge Arts Theatre
July 9-14: Colchester Mercury Theatre
July 16-21: Cheltenham Everyman Theatre

Published: 18 Jan 2012