Peter Pan Goes Wrong

Finally! After the soaps have all taken their turn to depress us, several 'specials' have been anything but, and ITV have rammed a Harry Potter season down our necks, it's great that the BBC have brought us this brilliant bit of fun entertainment.

This was a joy from start to finish, and if anything meets the 'perfect family viewing' title it's this. It was good old fashioned slapstick entertainment, that brilliantly spoofed not only Peter Pan but life in Am-Dram groups in general.

If only there was more programmes like this on telly across the year. I certainly would rank this up there with 'Ethel and Ernest' as the best things that have been on over Christmas.

I never saw "A play that goes wrong" but this was absolutely hilarious.

You probably know the premise: they try to do this familiar play but at every turn everything goes spectacularly and side splittingly pair shaped from technical problems, actors confusing lines and costume malfunctions.

I appreciate that on paper it sounds a bit painful and liable to just coast people humiliating themselves and easy gags that are just copy and pasted from disastrous rehearsals the writers have been in but the whole thing is impeccably thought through and choreographed to precision and executed flawlessly by an amazing cast.

And on top of all that there is a narrative among the in-universe cast that develops and resolves without detracting from the main thing.

I can be something of a comedy snob but this was the real deal. Legit comedy in its purest form.

I smiled and laughed through most of this show. It makes me think how much more enjoyable school plays would be for both the children and the audience if they were presented like this performance. Anything that would go wrong would just be part of the play and everyone would laugh. It is just what it is supposed to be lighthearted fun.

This is an excellent way to spend an hour. I laughed out loud a number of times and even when I wasn't laughing, I was smiling. I highly recommend.

As I write this, the Mischief Theatre is on Broadway at the Barrymore Theater with this burlesque of J. M. Barrie's show. If, however, you don't have the $85 dollars, or can't get to Broadway, you can look at this BBC production from 2016.

There are several obvious ways for this show to go wrong; the flying harnesses are the obvious things. However, the scheduled problems with this production don't end with that particular gag -- or start with them either. There are problems backstage as well as on, performers get stuck in embarrassing poses, there are audience members heckling, players getting angry, narrator David Suchet gets trapped in the chaos, and even a story that goes on about the cast, a bunch of farceurs who will keep you laughing throughout.