Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn at 90: a miscellany of the satirical columnist's finest moments

Playwright and novelist Frayn wrote for the Guardian since 1957. Here's a selection of his writing from the past 65 years, covering everything from the arrival of saunas to the Lady Chatterley's Lover trial.

What happens to comedy when British politics becomes a joke?

When audiences do want something sharp, they want it to confirm prejudices.

Noises Off review

Frayn's immortal farce is an antidote to winter gloom.

Michael Frayn on Noises Off, a farce to be reckoned with

The 1982 play stills pulls in crowds from Broadway to Helsinki, and is now returning to the West End for a fifth time. 'I just can't understand it,' says its creator.

Meera Syal in Noises Off West End transfer

Michael Frayn's hit Noises Off will transfer from the Lyric Hammersmith to the West End.

Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the new revival of Frayn's metatheatrical comedy will star Meera Syal, Lloyd Owen, Daniel Rigby and Simon Rouse, with further West End casting to be announced.

John Cleese's irascible headteacher is flattened by time's winged chariot in Christopher Morahan's slight, but achingly funny, comedy, scripted by Michael Frayn. Heading for a conference in Norwich, Brian boards the wrong train and is soon deep in a travel nightmare horribly familiar to rail users everywhere.

Michael Frayn & Howard Jacobson up for Wodehouse prize

Michael Frayn and Howard Jacobson have been shortlisted for an award celebrating the year's funniest novels.

Michael Frayn's latest novel Skios is a side-splitting comic delight, which takes in almost every sub-genre from drop-your-pants farce and slapstick to verbal jokes and a satire of intellectual poseurs. Published last year, the book was criticised for over-reliance on farce at the expense of characterisation, but this adaptation, by Archie Scottney, provides more balance to the competing elements.

Hugh Bonneville plays scientist Dr Norman Wilfred with only a little of the weary grandiloquence the actor cultivated on Downton Abbey. Wilfred arrives on a Greek island to give a speech to a cultural foundation, but his place has been assumed fraudulently by Oliver Fox, played with blase charm by Tom Hollander.

Thwarted seductions alternate with Fox's pseudo-philosophical assertions, lapped up by an adoring coterie that dare not declare that the emperor - like several of the cast - isn't wearing any clothes.

Jon Glover brings the house down with his rendition of Spiros and Stavros, two manic cabbies whose question as to the identity of their passenger - "Fox Oliver?" - is taken for a talismanic local phrase. The question of identity and mis-identity is at the heart of the piece, although I couldn't help wondering why someone doesn't whip out their smartphone and unmask the interloper.

Hugh Bonneville plays Dr Norman Wilfred, eagerly awaited lecturer at an annual scientific meeting on the Greek island of Skios. But someone else turns up, passing as Dr Wilfred. This charming chancer is Oliver Fox (Tom Hollander). Meanwhile, Dr Wilfred is stuck in a remote villa with Georgie (Janie Dee), who has been sweet-talked by Oliver into spending the weekend with him, and no luggage. The script is by Archie Scottney, from the novel by Michael Frayn, the cast (which also includes Stacy Keach and Joanne Whalley) is as grand as you'd expect from those independents Jarvis & Ayres.