Tim Pigott-Smith

On my radar: Harry Hill's cultural highlights

The comedian on Tim Pigott-Smith as Prince Charles, Revolutionary Road, the rock band Eels and the magic of Gogglebox.

Kathryn Bromwich, The Observer, 16th November 2014

When a play tackles subjects as ethics of have-a-go heroics, redemption and reconciliation, and the cult of celebrity, you fear that something has to give. But when the play is written by Alan Ayckbourn, stars Tim Pigott-Smith, Janie Dee and Alex Jennings, and is directed by Martin Jarvis you can lay those fears to rest.

It's the tale of Vic Parks, a criminal who, having spent nine years in jail for a botched bank robbery, has become a television celebrity. Now he is to appear on a TV show in which the host Jill Rellington intends to bring him face to face with Douglas Beechey - the unassuming clerk who foiled the robbery.

The production retains Ayckbourn's comic touch by asking why society is more in thrall to villains than heroes, and keeps the laughs dark right to the end.

David Crawford, Radio Times, 11th April 2009