IT was like spending an evening with old friends at the Malvern Theatres on Monday at the first night of Round the Horne...Revisited.

They were all there, Kenneth Horne (Jonathan Rigby), Douglas Smith (David McAlister), Hugh Paddick (Nigel Harrison), Betty Marsden (Kate Brown) and Kenneth Williams (Keith Wickham).

With them they brought their characters which have delighted so many people over the years, "many, many, many times," as Dame Celia Molestrangler would say.

Julian and Sandy, how bona to vade their dolly old eeks again, J Peasmold Gruntfuttock, self-proclaimed King of Peassmoldia which starts at the railway junction and goes as far up Buttermold Street as the pub, Dame Celia and Binkie Huckaback, so heart-stoppingly set in their Noel Cowardly ways, and what Round the Horne would be complete without Rambling Syd Rumpo, with songs and stories from his ganderbag.

There are a host of others, including Miss Daphne Whitethigh, Lady Bea Counterblast, various special productions and what Round the Horne would be complete without the answers to last week's questions.

The Malvern show is a Christmas special and it includes a lot of new material from Brian Cooke, the last remaining writer from the Horne quartet which also included Barry Took, Marty Feldman and Johnnie Mortimer.

The show runs until Saturday, December 31, and it is well worth getting tickets, £14 to £20, from the box office on 01684 892277.

Review by GERRY BARNETT