Trio

One story less, otherwise much the same Somerset Maugham portmanteau mixture as Quartet, similarly introduced by Maugham himself, and with the cast similarly making up for indifferent staging. The first and last stories (The Verger and The Sanatorium) are diffuse, facile, and pretty predictable; but Mr Knowall - with a clever performance from Nigel Patrick as the insufferable bore whose veneer of crashing insensitivity, inflicted on his fellow passengers on a cruise ship, momentarily cracks to reveal a surprising delicacy - is a neatly judged anecdote.