The Lavender Hill Mob at Chichester Festival Theatre: REVIEW - not funny enough and too predictable for modern tastes

Everyone of a certain age looks back on the great 1950s’ comedy films of the Ealing Studios with warm affection and nostalgia.

During this classic period, it produced such masterpieces as Kind Hearts and Coronets, Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers, and of course The Lavender Hill Mob.

So it was no surprise that crowds have flocked to Chichester Festival Theatre to catch the brief visit of its stage renaissance especially as the ever popular Miles Jupp leads the cast as Henry ‘Dutch’ Holland, the respectable and unassuming bank clerk who pulls off a massive gold bullion robbery and retires to Rio de Janeiro where he is treated like a celebrity.

It is here that he and his friends act out his daring raid in front of a mysterious stranger who turns out to be more sinister than any of them suspected.

No-one can fault the enthusiasm, professionalism or sheer enjoyment of the cast but time has not been kind to this piece of Ealing history. The comedy is not quite funny enough; the plot too predictable for a generation spoilt by the twists and turns of programmes like Line of Duty.

No doubt there would have been howls of anguish from purists if the story-line had been transformed but like an old sofa this 70-year-old narrative requires to be completely reupholstered – it is too threadbare to support a full evening’s entertainment, no matter how much we all wish it to succeed.