Blithe Spirit is a delightful play which has held up better than some others in the Noel Coward canon, so it isn't surprising that of the four somewhat shortened versions of Coward plays presented on British tv in August 1964 it is the most successful.
The play, which deals with an eccentric medium bringing back the late wife of a now remarried husband,was written during WWII,a period in which US film critic Parker Tyler detected a similar interest in Hollywood movies of the time in fantasies about spirits and the after life.
The scene stealer is Carry On veteran Hattie Jacques,who seems aware she is following in the footsteps of the great Margaret Rutherford from the film version,but invests her Madame Arcati with playful slapstick and some roustabout folderol that seem all her own.
Any man who has occasionally felt the presence of an overly smothering woman nearby to be a nuisance will have to smile at the satisfying conclusion.
The play, which deals with an eccentric medium bringing back the late wife of a now remarried husband,was written during WWII,a period in which US film critic Parker Tyler detected a similar interest in Hollywood movies of the time in fantasies about spirits and the after life.
The scene stealer is Carry On veteran Hattie Jacques,who seems aware she is following in the footsteps of the great Margaret Rutherford from the film version,but invests her Madame Arcati with playful slapstick and some roustabout folderol that seem all her own.
Any man who has occasionally felt the presence of an overly smothering woman nearby to be a nuisance will have to smile at the satisfying conclusion.
