The endlessly versatile actor plays a reserved widow who hires a sex worker in this enjoyably subversive but not quite believable romp
he words “British sex comedy” will strike an icy chill into the heart of anyone raised on a diet of Brian Rix trouser-losing theatrical farces and films such asYet despite such a blush-inducing heritage, the inelegantly namedmanages to keep one foot firmly on the floor of enjoyably progressive entertainment even as it dances around a peculiarly British minefield in which anxiety and openness about intimacy collide.
Directed by Sophie Hyde from an often hilarious if somewhat theatrical script by Katy Brand, this stagey two-hander presents a chaptered series of hotel-room encounters between an uptight, recently widowedwoman and an unfeasibly lovable handsome young sex worker.
Having only ever slept with her husband, Nancy’s knowledge of sex work comes largely from the Wikipedia-copied essays of her students for whom the question “Should it be legalised?” was a regular set topic. Meanwhile, the titular erudite service provider has mummy issues that dovetail neatly with his jittery client’s own parental shortcomings, something that will become apparent during their extracoital exchanges, which form the backbone of the drama.
There’s an echo of Rigsby from Rising Damp about Thompson’s performance – over-loquacious, physically fiddlesome It’s no surprise that the endlessly versatile Thompson should be note-perfect in a tragicomic role that requires her to declare: “I don’t want an old man, I want aone” before swiftly admitting: “I’m just a seedy old pervert – I feel like Rolf Harris!” There’s the merest hint ofabout her infatuation with youth, a reminder of the grief she feels for the time she has wasted and the erotic spark of the time she has left.
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