IN a country where we stand accused of building up reputations only to knock them down again with relish, there are still a few national treasures which are untouchable. Thankfully, Last of the Summer Wine has dropped off that list in recent years so there’s no reason to pretend this was a brilliant piece of theatre. Characters the whole nation once held dear have been translated to the stage before but any frail hopes this latest outing would take me back to the glory years of the 70s were dashed with a lacklustre first half which was woefully short on wit and inspiration. Just as the television series offers rare employment opportunities for actors of a certain vintage, so this production looked to an older generation to carry the action, such as was to be found in this limp plot of a streaker who didn’t streak. Top of the bill for most people would have been Ruth Madoc, forever remembered among the target audience as Gladys Pugh in Hi-De-Hi! but who was dreadfully underused here. In another confession from a childhood of dubious TV watching integrity, I instantly recognised Tony Adams from the publicity photos. OK, remembering a man for spending years playing Adam Chance in Crossroads will not be seen by many as high praise - but having landed the role of the non-streaker, at least he helped give proceedings a bit of a boost after the interval. In football terms it felt like someone had thrown a few tea cups around in the dressing room at half-time because for a while Adams as Mr Pilbeam and Harry Dickman as Compo threatened to transform the show. Their escape routine, whether improvised or scripted to appear so, was the combination of witty dialogue and physical fooling around that once made the show great. Alas, their intervention came too late for the people in the row behind us who didn’t reappear for the second half and, alas, this transformation was all too brief. There were sufficient Last of the Summer Wine in-jokes to raise some chuckles throughout and, fair enough, Compo, Clegg and Foggy were all brought to life with enough of the personality traits we associate with them. But it all seemed like a missed opportunity. Starting from the point of view of a lapsed fan, a bit of me really wanted this to succeed. It’s never been cutting edge comedy and that’s not what its audience has ever wanted. The word that best fits its style has always been gentle – only on this outing lazy rather than gentle was the lasting impression. Richard Howarth Star rating: 1/5 | 
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