Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s time for me to share one of the birthday presents I received from Stephen, my best mate from school, this year. I’ve enjoyed watching ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’, a comedy play based on J.M. Barrie’s original ‘Peter Pan’ play that has been made into a TV special, released in December 2016. 🙂

I found ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ more enjoyable than ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’, which was recently released on Disney+. I’ve enjoyed how deliberate ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ is in terms of being a seemingly amateur production on stage. It’s also intentionally funny by the performers for the show.

‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ is by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields of the Mischief Theatre company and they created ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’, which was shown on stage in 2012. I was pretty unaware of the Mischief Theatre company before I watched ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ on DVD.

From what I’ve seen, the actors are very entertaining. It must have taken a lot of creativity and effort to produce something that’s meant to go wrong. It does help that the production is performed in front of a live audience. I imagine that this applies in both the theatre sense as well as the TV sense.

The play is narrated by David Suchet, who you may have come across as Hercule Poirot in the ITV series and perhaps in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘Knock Knock’. I enjoyed the comedy moments with David Suchet, especially when he takes Captain Hook’s moustache, and he gets to be Poirot for a bit.

Henry Shields plays Chris the show’s director, who plays Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. I found it funny when Chris was annoyed by the audience treating his play as a pantomime, whereas he’s thinks it’s a serious show. The moments where he’s opening a poison bottle with his hook are funny.

There’s Henry Lewis playing Robert, who plays Nana, Peter’s Shadow and Starkey the pirate. I found it funny when he as Nana and Peter’s Shadow got stuck in the door in the Darling children’s bedroom. It was also pretty funny when Robert as Starkey wanted his sword from Dennis as Smee. 😀

The rest of the Peter Pan cast includes Greg Tannahill as Jonathan/Peter Pan, Charlie Russell as Sandra/Wendy, Dave Hearn as Max who plays Michael and the Crocodile, and Jonathan Sayer as Dennis who plays John and Smee. Dennis is funny when he’s wearing his headset as John and Smee.

He often says words that aren’t meant to be said by the person talking to him through the headset. It turns out Max, who plays Michael and the Crocodile, is smitten with Sandra/Wendy whilst she and Jonathan/Peter Pan are in a relationship. But Jonathan may be two-timing with Tinker Bell as well. 😮

Sandra is angry when she hears about this and slaps Jonathan, so I guess she and Max do get to live happily ever after the play’s end. 😀 Nancy Zamit as Annie plays a lot of characters, including Mrs. Darling, Liza the housekeeper, Tinker Bell, a Pirate, and Tiger Lily. Gosh, that Annie is very versatile. 🙂

It was slightly tense and funny when Tinker Bell got knocked out after ‘taking’ Peter Pan’s poison, but thankfully Ellie Morris playing Lucy as Tootles encourages everyone to declare, “I believe in fairies!” No, no, no! You’re supposed to say, “I do believe in fairies! I do, I do!” as in the 2003 film. 😀

It was funny to hear the cab sound effects going off in the play. I also enjoyed the cut-scenes of Captain Hook rowing in a boat before he rows a ‘pedalo’ in a park’s river, and then rows a boat in a swimming pool. 😀 The wardrobe malfunction with Wendy, John and Michael about to fly is funny. 🙂

Incidentally, shouldn’t Max be playing John whilst Dennis plays Michael. I mean, Max is taller than Dennis, so shouldn’t the smallest actor be playing Michael instead of the tall actor? It would make sense. Anyway, the play ends with Hook’s pirate ship charging off into the ‘Eggheads’ game studio. 😀

It then charges into the BBC News studio, charges into the ‘Teletubbies’ studio, picks up Po the red Teletubby, and ends up back in the studio where it started. Did I mention the ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ TV play was shown at Christmas time? I guess it makes sense to end the play on that note. 😀

‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ has been an enjoyable TV adaptation of the play. It’s been fun to see David Suchet and it was fun to see the Mischief Theatre company for the first time. I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of their productions on DVD in future. ‘A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’ could be up next. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂