THESE masters of farce made a welcome return to the Palace Theatre with a new version of No Room For Love by Anthony Marriott and Bob Grant.

Picture a second rate Norfolk hotel full of musicians tuning up for a festival. The guests include two newly married couples named Smith, Doctor Garfield and his receptionist Miss Unsworth, there for a dirty weekend, plus the sweet and innocent "Badger and Squirrel".

But the manager has booked them into the same room.

Mrs Garfield plus harp turns up out of the blue and bumps into Dr Garfield, who hastily decides he's there to perform an emergency operation. Add a "boozy old bat" and her jealous French horn-playing husband and somehow they all end up in the one bed in rotation but never with the right partner. Great!

This was a first rate production with pace and timing plus really excellent acting across the board.

Pablo Raybould and Joanne Gill were hilarious as the forlorn Badger and Squirrel and richly deserved their special cheer at the end. Robert Ecclestone and Linda Gill were perfect as Dr and Mrs Garfield with Louise Smith a very cute and confident Miss Unsworth.

Rebecca Gardner and Dan Blizzard were tremendous, respectively as the permanently tipsy and permanently angry Whitings.

Martin Shuttleworth as usual was outstanding, this time as Albert the cantankerous porter who hates music, musicians and just about everything else. The manager, played by Justin Wilks, bore an uncanny resemblance to David Dickinson and with "two for one" on Wednesday night, tickets were either cheap as chips or silly money, depending on your point of view.

I suspect those who paid full price still thought they had found a bargain.

With the players providing a full house, the Palace must have been delighted. The audience certainly was.

Adrian Shaw