By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 30 December (matinee), runs through 27 January 2024 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

We last saw 77-year-old Penelope Wilton onstage at the Old Vic in Fanny And Alexander and here playing the Queen Mother she reminds us what timing she has and how funny she can be.

• Read on for reasons including how Wilton gives a comic masterclass that had this audience both roaring and applauding its approval

Backstairs Billy is the story of William Tallon who was a member of staff at the Queen Mother’s home, joining the Royal Household aged 15 and becoming Page of the Backstairs in Clarence House in 1978.

This comedy was written by Marcelo Dos Santos, who this year won the Best New Play monsta for Feeling Afraid, As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen, and is predominantly set in the garden room at Clarence House in 1979 although occasionally it looks back to 1952 when Tallon and the Queen Mother first met.

The story could have featured in Netflix’s The Crown but instead owes a great deal to farce and reminded us of the belly laughs of TV’s Yes, Minister with a social conscience never too far from the surface.

Backstairs Billy played by Luke Evans, appearing to relish the role, barely suppresses his homosexuality, delights in improving the mood of Wilton’s Queen Mother, who displays a rebellious tendency one associated with the late Princess Margaret, as new broom Mr Kerr played by Ian Drysdale tries to cut back on some of the Clarence House excesses.

It’s a slight story but very funny and Billy takes it into his own hands when a dull teetotal couple arrive for an afternoon function and he decides to liven things up by adding spirits to their cordial.

Things take a more difficult turn when Billy brings a romantic encounter back to Clarence House, activist Ian (Eloka Ivo, Black Superhero, Royal Court) who leaves a penis-shaped statue there and returns to look for it.

Dos Santos is a talented writer and, while this is pleasingly pro-gay and very funny, we would like to have seen him dig a little deeper to say more about the time capsule Billy created for the Queen Mother and how at odds that was with the change in the air politically and socially that would start to address the problems faced by those disciminated against.

Evans gives a pleasingly camp performance littering his diction with words like ‘dearie’ and ‘duckie’ but it’s Wilton who gives a comic masterclass that had this audience both roaring and applauding its approval.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy ATG
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