
Much Ado About Nothing
2013

Nutbourne College, an old established, all-boys, boarding school is told that another school is to be billeted with due to wartime restrictions. The shock is that it's an all-girls school that has been sent. The two head teachers are soon battling for the upper hand with each other and the Ministry. But a crisis (or two) forces them to work together.

Nutbourne College, an old established, all-boys, boarding school is told that another school is to be billeted with due to wartime restrictions. The shock is that it's an all-girls school that has been sent. The two head teachers are soon battling for the upper hand with each other and the Ministry. But a crisis (or two) forces them to work together.
Alastair SimWetherby Pond
Margaret RutherfordMuriel Whitchurch
John TurnbullConrad Matthews: Staff of Nutbourne
Richard WattisArnold Billings: Staff of Nutbourne
John BentleyRichard Tassell: Staff of Nutbourne
Guy MiddletonVictor Hyde-Brown: Staff of Nutbourne
Arthur HowardAnthony Ramsden: Staff of Nutbourne
Edward RigbyRainbow: Staff of Nutbourne
Harold GoodwinEdwin: Staff of Nutbourne
Gladys HensonMrs. Hampstead: Staff of Nutbourne
Muriel AkedMiss Jezzard: Staff of St. Swithin's
Joyce GrenfellMiss Gossage: Staff of St. Swithin's
Myrette MorvenMiss Chapel: Staff of St. Swithin's
Laurence NaismithDr. Collet
Stringer DavisRev. Rich
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"Wetherby Pond" (Alastair Sim) is the headmaster of a boy's school who really just wants a peaceable life with his miscreant pupils at "Nutbourne" school. It's the war, though, and the useless mandarins at Whitehall decide that he is going to have to share his premises with another school. Thing is, they get all caught up in their own red tape and next thing he finds the intimidating "Miss Whitchurch" on his doorstep, armed with hundreds of girls, luggage, hockey sticks - you name it. They are there and there to stay. Before he can blink, "Pond" and his staff have been outmanoeuvred and his shirts are now in the filing cabinet! A sort of truce breaks out, cemented a little more when they realise that their charges have pens and paper and stamps. Letters to the parents about sharing send shivers down their spines. They must collaborate. A sudden inspection spells disaster for both of their careers unless they can institute some facility sharing legerdemain in double quick time. Will it work? Can it? Well we spend much of the rest of this amiable comedy demonstrating a degree of precision the would have made the D-Day landings blush. Sim and Rutherford both had super comedy timing and Frank Launder and John Dighton have adapted the latter man's play to ensure they get ample opportunity to demonstrate that to us. A solid supporting cast including the always entertaining Joyce Grenfell help keep this eighty minutes of mischief and mayhem working well.

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