In period comedy drama Home and Beauty, based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham, selfish Victoria (Felicity Kendal) seemingly has it all – the home in the country a wonderful husband and children but when she believes her husband Bill (Daniel Massey) has been killed in action during World War I she decides to marry again – to Bill’s old friend Freddie (John Standing). Bill in actual fact is alive and well. Victoria has a very difficult decision to make. Not so Bill and Freddie who are both keen to escape Victoria’s clutches. Enter the wealthy Leicester Paton (Ronald Lacey) who Bill and Freddie believe would make the perfect next husband for Victoria.
Reviewing the production in The Stage (January 12, 1978) Jennifer Lovelace found that Home and Beauty was “a soufflé of a play, directed with a light touch by Simon Langton and enthusiastically performed by an accomplished cast determined to exploit it’s comic potential to the utmost.”
Cast: Felicity Kendal as Victoria; Joan Haythorne as Mrs Shuttleworth; Virginia Denham as Taylor; Ronald Lacey as Mr Leicester Paton; John Standing as Major Frederick Lowndes; Daniel Massey as Major William Cardew; Fanny Rowe as Miss Montmorency; Hugh Paddick as Mr A.B. Raham; Simon Barry as Clarence
Writer: Stanley Miller / Story: W. Somerset Maugham / Production Design: Vic Symonds / Producer: John K. Cooper / Executive Producer: Peter Willes / Director: Simon Langton
UK / ITV Network – Yorkshire / 1×60 minute episodes / Broadcast 5 January 1978 @ 9.00pm
