TWICE BRIGHTLY

by Harry Secombe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 12, 1974

The author is a popular British comedian -- via variety, radio (The Goon Show), the telly, etc. -- who first broke into the circuits after World War II when this slight but cheerful farce takes place. Not surprisingly, Secombe has a ripe instinct for comic situations. So here is Larry Gower (like many another Welshman, his name will be mangled and transposed more than once), young comedian in his first week's turn at a seedy Northern variety theater in the '40's. He is terrorized by a monstrous landlady; carouses with a claque of fellow Welshmen and winds up in flagrante delicto and in semi-plighted troth to a dancer whose muscular brother will soon arrive to enforce honorable intent; he befriends the show's lion but is suddenly visited onstage by his new feline friend; he is done in by fate and a friend who nicks material; but at the dose Larry is bouncing back. There's a predictable but enjoyable cast: a sodden lion tamer, a tyrannical nude artiste who performs in goosepimples and before upside down backdrops, a nice homosexual duo, an addled orchestra leader, sleazy agents, managers, etc. Likable-to-crazy people, from the days when laff men ran on stage to the tune of the same name.

Pub Date: Feb. 12, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION