British Comedy Guide

Quentin Letts

  • English
  • Journalist

Press clippings

Sheridan Smith's secret? She loves her job and her audience

Shirley Valentine is a welcome blast of sunshine. And it's all down to the appeal of its star.

Quentin Letts, The Times, 9th April 2023

Theatre review: The Man in the White Suit, Wyndham's

Stephen Mangan is on a relentless quest for laughs in Sean Foley's adaptation of a classic Ealing comedy.

Quentin Letts, The Sunday Times, 13th October 2019

Labour of Love review: These Lefties are all right!

The audience enjoyed the nostalgia, sighing happily when they saw Teletext, a fax machine and an early Nineties mobile telephone. Though it may return one day, at present political centrism seems to have gone the same way as those defunct innovations and that makes this play feel less potent and truthful than it might have done a year or so ago. I'm afraid that, at present, not even the most artful West End production can match real politics for raw theatre.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 6th October 2017

Laughably bad... Harry Enfield in Once In A Lifetime

What a jolly surprise. The Young Vic, where they so often beat you over the head with Arthur Millerish gloom, has revived a dotty 1930s comedy satirising early Hollywood. It stars Harry Enfield - who is actually almost laughably bad - as a pugnacious movie mogul.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 7th December 2016

First night review: David Baddiel

Number five of the Ten Commandments tells us to honour our parents. Comedian David Baddiel goes about this by telling startlingly frank stories about the voracious sexual appetite of his late mother.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 18th May 2016

Review: The Complete Deaths

There are 75 on-stage deaths in Shakespeare and zany troupe Spymonkey has cobbled together a Brighton Festival comedy evening depicting them all.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 13th May 2016

Tickets: Mrs Henderson Presents - The New Musical

Don't miss Mrs Henderson Presents, the hilarious, brand-new, five-star musical that's had critics in raptures, as it makes its West End debut in February 2016. Based on the much-loved film that starred Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, the show's run at the Theatre Royal Bath was hailed by the Guardian as "a shot in the arm for the British musical" and led ]Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail to exclaim, "I have not emerged from the theatre feeling quite so cheerful in a long time".

Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, 9th October 2015

Quentin Letts pays tribute to Ronnie Barker

The last thing he wrote was a terribly sad play, Mum. After all the polished gaiety of the comedy material, we suddenly see a glimpse of a Ronnie Barker who was shadowed by the unhappiness in life. Perhaps it goes to confirm that theory that all the best comedians are sad.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 22nd September 2015

Monty Python Live review

What would the old Pythons have made of these sad old chaps? They might have taken the rise out of them. Maybe we should we more merciful and just thank them for the old memories.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 1st July 2014

I Can't Sing: Daft as a whistling gerbil & so British!

Well, Simon, it's a maybe from me. This X Factor satire enthusiastically takes the mickey, and its unfettered Britishness is a welcome change from all the American musicals in the West End.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 27th March 2014

Share this page