Terence Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy may be set in the London of 100 years ago but it keeps throwing topical pebbles at you.
A young boy is expelled from naval school after being accused of pinching five shillings. The case ends up in the House of Commons and the High Court. Do we not think of the Chris Huhne case? A piffling offence can snowball into a political scandal.
The Press piles in, supporting little Ronnie Winslow (Charlie Rowe) against the unyielding naval and political Establishment.
Timely performance: Naomi Frederick and Henry Goodman as Catherine and Arthur Winslow at the Old Vic
A reporter visits the Winslow family house and is more interested in
the human angles — and the design of their curtains — than the dry
legalities. The Winslows’ telephone keeps being rung by newshounds.I may be going completely mad about this current Press standards row we have in the London of 2013, but are there not echoes of it here in Rattigan?
A politician lawyer, Sir Robert Morton (Peter Sullivan), takes up Ronnie’s case. Why? Because he seeks publicity and wants to make life hell for his political opponents. Little has changed.
Lindsay Posner’s handsomely staged production, which has Henry Goodman as Ronnie’s ailing father Arthur, starts slowly. It does not really grab until the arrival of dastardly, magnificent Sir Robert.
Oooh, he’s all QC, Sir Robert: arrogant, raffish, repressed, in evening tails and top hat. Well done, Mr Sullivan.