No Surrender

An acerbic, frequently very funny farce scripted by Alan Bleasdale, here bringing with him Angelis, Hill and Ellis from The Boys from the Black Stuff. It's the same slightly surreal allegory on contemporary Britain: a seedy Liverpool nightclub, where Angelis takes over as manager to find that his predecessor - a practical joker - has booked a gaggle of appalling acts to perform at a New Year's Eve binge, attended by two parties of OAPs, one Protestant, the other devout Irish Catholics. Mayhem ensues, of course, amid a collection of excellent performances and witty one-liners. No masterpiece, to be sure, but highly enjoyable, for all its underlying bleakness.