Writer: Graham Duff
We’re used to old well-loved sitcoms being brought to the stage, but they’re so often steeped in nostalgia and fall short when it comes to delivering a piece of theatre in their own right. Ideal may not be an obvious candidate for a 20thanniversary live revival, having been something of a cult following, but those followers haven’t forgotten Moz and friends and are turning out to fill the opening week of this dark comedy at Lowry.
The tour couldn’t really start anywhere else. Set in a grubby Salford flat, home to small time drug dealer Moz and regular hang-out of his friends and customers, Ideal comes ‘home’ for one last outing. The live show is the finale that Duff and the team never got to make after the show was cancelled by the BBC after its seventh series. While it hits all the right notes for the fans, it’s a self-contained play in its own right, and a very funny one at that.
It’s twenty years on and Moz is being put out of business by a delivery dealers on scooters. Nobody’s coming round any more to buy his wide selection of weed. He has got himself a lovely girlfriend, though, and his friends are still popping in – Colin has just got out of prison, and Brian convinces Moz that he should have a party. When the party ends in an unexpected manner, all kinds of craziness follows.
Ideal has all the signs of ‘putting the band back together’. Ben Crompton is fantastic as the recently released Colin, full of bouncy energy and hilarious when playing against Vegas. Emma Fryer as Tania puts in a delightfully louche performance. Ryan Pope plays Psycho Paul, a dodgy Manc who’s moved on from gang killings to just disposing of the bodies for other gangs (less effort, still commands and excellent fee) with delicious menace, and Joanna Neary plays Judith, Moz’s strange neighbour and ex-girlfriend. Neary’s performance is pure, delightful clowning. Writer/Director Graham Duff plays Brian, Moz’s camp neighbour and, at the centre of it all is the one and only, extremely amiable, Johnny Vegas. The members of the original cast are having a ball doing this again, and even though the show feels woefully under-rehearsed, a great deal of charm and ad-libbing ability gets them through.
What is less forgivable, though is the clunky technical delivery. Scene changes are long and awkward, sound effects are poorly timed and headset microphones pick up everything they shouldn’t. It’s to be hoped that these things can be ironed out which should shave a good ten minutes off the show and make it much tighter.
Everything is played out on a simple set that looks much like a TV set with the action happening in two grim rooms. On this relatively blank canvas, a couple of anxiety dream sequences are particularly effective, brilliantly handled with low-rent costumes and great physical performance.
Shambolic production aside, what holds all this together is a brilliant script and a cast of highly accomplished comic actors, making it a laugh out loud show from start to finish.
Runs until 13 September 2025
