The Crown Jewels

Although Time Out was booked in to see ‘The Crown Jewels’ on two occasions, it was cancelled by the producers both times and a review now seems logistically unlikely.

This new comedy from ‘Men Behaving Badly’ scribe Simon Nye has an intriguing premise: it’s based on a true-life historical incident wherein disgruntled Anglo-Irish army officer Colonel Thomas Blood hatched an audacious and very nearly successful plan to steal the Crown Jewels from King Charles II. It’s certainly a fascinating caper, though it’ll be intriguing to see if Nye’s play – directed by stage comedy stalwart Sean Foley – can escape the extremely long historical sitcom shadow of ‘Blackadder’, and to a lesser extent David Mitchell”s ‘Upstart Crow’ (Foley directed the stage version).

Whatever the case, they’ve assembled a crack comedy cast, with Al Murray as Charles II, plus Mel Giedroyc, Carrie Hope Fletcher, Aidan McArdle, Neil Morrissey Joe Thomas and Tanvi Virmani tackling the Restoration larks.