ianlouisiana Review of Simon and Laura

Simon and Laura (1955)

A very funny but rather wicked look at a marriage "as seen on tv"........

[9/10 · 19 January 2018]

...by a sadly - neglected writer.Rarely seen on TV because it would be like Turkeys voting for Christmas.Husband and wife acting pair take TV's 30 pieces of silver with results that 60 years on seem absolutely predictable but at the time were perhaps not so obvious. Back in 1957 tv families were supposed to be perfect,smiling happily married middle class well educated and articulate. Few of these criteria have survived the century so there is an extra degree of humour to be extracted from Simon and Laura who seem almost Victorian even in their animus toward one another which of course must not be reflected by their tv personae. Miss K.Kendall was very much a darling of 50s British movies and a fine light comic performer. Mr P Finch was on his way up to Oscar winning capacity. They spark off each other nicely and many of our favourite character actors fill roles that,whilst not exactly challenging them remind us why we loved them. TV was a relatively uncharted medium at that time and the BBC had the monopoly,it was Hobson's Choice for viewers and enormous audiences in relation to the number of tv sets owned by the public. In today's gossip magazines people like Eammon and Ruth,and Richard and Judy fill the columns as the Simon and Laura of the 21st century. Not that I am suggesting for a minute that their personal lives are anything other than what they appear to be. I became acquainted with Mr Melville after seeing him perform in the play "The Gazebo" at the Theatre Royal",Brighton. He was charming and witty,a strange amalgam of the extrovert and introvert. He has a wide circle of friends in and out of showbusiness although seldom the twain met if he could help it. He may be scarcely remembered now but in his time he was a popular tv stalwart and well - positioned to observe and articulate its mores. "Simon and Laura" scathing though it can be,is also an affectionate portrait of an era that the media have long left behind.And not in a good way.