Decline And Fall

Evelyn Waugh's picaresque farce continues, as the hapless Paul Pennyfeather (a nicely cast Jack Whitehall) is hired to tutor the son of wealthy socialite widow Margot Beste-Chetwynde (the divine Eva Longoria). Before long, his heart has melted all over her embroidered frock - but there's a love rival in the shape of preposterous German architect Otto ("I love her body as much as concrete"). And is Margot's international cabaret business all it seems.

This is a gentle comedy, and last week I complained it was rather too gentle. The permanently pale, nervous, baffled expression worn by Jack Whitehall's character, Paul, never changed and, with the rest of the cast being men, men, men (plus some bratty schoolboys), it all seemed too colourless and uniform. It was stuffed with waistcoats, brandy, cigars, school ties and dim light.

Eva Longoria appeared towards the end, all radiant and flirtatious, her arrival offering promise that things might begin to step up a gear and throw off the comedy's dull insistence on the stuffy world of ... men.

And she does improve things. Longoria plays the over-the-top, glamorous and wealthy American widow Margot Beste-Chetwynde, and she has invited nervous Paul to join her noisy world as a tutor. He hopes to win her heart while struggling to fit in with the flighty, fashionable set she associates with. Things remain gentle, even sometimes dull, but at least we have some feminine flapper-style flirtation and pizzazz going on.