Patrick Barlow

The 39 Steps review

What is so impressive about the performance is how everybody is so clear about the theatrical convention they are employing.

The 39 Steps review

This is a must-see if you are a 39 Steps fan... even if not, it is worth a shot if you are into fast-paced fun and action that keeps you on your toes!

Desmond Olivier Dingle aka Patrick Barlow made a welcome return to R4 last week with his very particular take on the suffragette movement. Bravo to the producers of Woman's Hour for letting him loose on their turf with Giant Ladies That Changed the World. Aided and abetted by the hapless Raymond, Dingle assumed the role of an overbearing Edwardian patriarch outraged by the prospect of female emancipation: "You are but a rib of the man," he tells Raymond, as his querulous wife. There is something oddly endearing about these idiots, like watching your child getting everything wrong in the school nativity play.

The National Theatre of Brent, Patrick Barlow interview

Andrew Pettie meets Patrick Barlow, founder of The National Theatre of Brent and writer of the hit West End comedy The 39 Steps.

Those titans of dramatic insight, The National Theatre of Brent, Desmond Olivier Dingle and Raymond Box (aka Patrick Barlow and John Ramm) present the history of the Suffragettes in, of course, their own characteristic way, where Little Dorrit and her politician husband explore the issues before she joins the struggle. If you have not met The National Theatre of Brent before, be patient as they lumber through their introduction. The bubbling historical and linguistic stew which lies beyond is definitely worth it.

The peerless National Theatre of Brent, led by artistic director Desmond Olivier Dingle (Patrick Barlow) and his hapless "entire company" Raymond (John Ramm), turns its attention to controversial Britartist Tracey Emin and in particular her infamous bed - one of the greatest beds ever unmade. Charged by collector Charles Saatchi to come up with a new work Tracey is motivated by the "inspirational ladies of history" following an argument with her boyfriend over the state of the flat. This is pomposity-pricking of the highest order and absolutely hilarious.

If you dismiss the Discworld novels as the domain of 40-year-old men who still live with their mothers, think again. At his best, Terry Pratchett mixes great dollops of sly Swiftian satire with a jolly good story - and Small Gods is one of his best. The Great God Om (Patrick Barlow) has fallen on hard times. Despite having an entire city devoted to him, no one actually believes in him anymore. And without that oxygen of belief, he is reduced to the ignominious form of a tortoise. Robin Brooks's admirable adaptation keeps the Pratchett wit intact.

Joan Of Arc really loves the cows she looks after for a living, so when those b*****d English put them to death by fire she's on the warpath. And she's going to save the whole of France as well. Dawn French plays the Maid of Orleans with a Jam and Jerusalem West Country accent and there are constant references to her large girth. She's in her comfort zone, but so are we.

Written by Patrick Barlow and co-starring Anne Reid, Maggie Steed and Jim Broadbent, this play's comedy credentials are impeccable. But when events turn more serious, the sound effects conflict, trial and fire are full-on and genuinely moving. As Joan trips towards her famous fate, she loves and loses not just cows.

Patrick Barlow and Jim Broadbent were the original National Theatre of Brent, with an approach to the great themes of drama somewhat akin to that of the painter LS Lowry's to the industrial north: apparently naive but actually perceptive. Barlow and Broadbent, on their own, tackling everything from the nativity to Shakespeare, were very funny. This is Barlow's take on the story of St Joan, maiden warrior and martyr, played here by Dawn French. Broadbent appears in the unexpectedly large cast list which includes Cheryl Campbell and John Ramm, with Anne Reid and Maggie Steed as Joan's guardian angels.