CAST

John Sessions

Henry Wakefield
Richard Briers

Vernon Spatch
Mark Hadfield

Tom Newman
Nicholas Farrell

Carnforth Greville
Gerard Horan

Terry Du Bois
John Sessions

Fadge
Celia Imrie

Molly
Hetta Charnley

Nina
Julia Sawalha

Margaretta D'Arcy
Joan Collins

Nancy Crawford
Jennifer Saunders

Mortimer
Robert Hines

Tim
James D. White

Mrs. Branch
Ann Davies

Nina's Father
Edward Dewesbury

"Ken wrote the part of Terry for me because it's based on a character I created for a Renaissance Theatre show a few years ago," says John Sessions. "He was called Billy Twinkle and he was a very precious, very camp, queen. Ken took that and changed it quite a lot, made it much less extreme, and here I am playing Gertrude which is something I would never get to do in any other circumstances."

"Terry isn't meant to be a caricature, though. His camp side is a carapace of protection. Actors often turn to campery as a way of getting through and protecting themselves when things get a bit difficult."

John Sessions occupies a very special place in the British show business arena. He is a unique talent whose genius defies description to the uninitiated. A gifted dramatic actor, he is also a celebrated wit and brilliantly inventive entertainer with an uncanny ability to improvise whole comic routines that he draws out of thin air.

His idiosyncratic one-man shows - in the theatre and on television - have been as varied as they have been numerous. There is nothing and no character, it seems, to which he cannot turn his hand.

Branagh and Sessions first met at RADA in 1979 and have been close friends and frequent professional collaborators ever since.

In 1987, Branagh formed the Renaissance Theatre Company and their second production was the one-man show JOHN SESSIONS: THE LIFE OF NAPOLEAN which Branagh directed. He also directed Sessions in AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR at the Donmar Warehouse.

Sessions' original solo work is a long list of television and theatre titles including "Likely Stories," "Tall Tales," "Some Enchanted Evening," "A History of Psychiatry" and "John Sessions' New Year Show" on the small screen and countless seasons of one-man shows all over the UK and in the West End.

He recently triumphed in the West End in the black comedy "My Night with Reg" and has starred in such classics as "Tartuffe" in which he played the lead, the opera "Die Fledermaus" as Frosch and as Joe Orton in "The Orton Diaries."