TELSTAR
New Ambassadors

NICK Moran has hitherto had a reputation as a bit of a playboy hipster.
Best known for his role in the hugely-overrated Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, his insistence in last week’s New Journal that he now wishes to be known as a writer struck this cynical reader as so much theatrical egotism.
All of which is only to say that I expected to hate Telstar, Moran’s first play, which opened this week at the New Ambassadors, when in fact the reverse is true. It’s great!
The play tells the story of Joe Meek, Britain’s first independent pop producer, who penned a string of hits in the innocent 1960s and recorded them at his makeshift Holloway Road flat-cum-studio.
Set over seven years in the flat, it documents his unlikely rise and prescription-drug fuelled descent until his eventual suicide.
In all then, it’s a bit of a downer, despite a stream of quality gags and well-turned performances.
Con O’Neill plays Meek with a light touch and captures his descent into madness perfectly; Linda Robson (yes, her off of Birds of a Feather) does her normal turn as an old battleaxe landlady as well as ever; Gareth Corke is spot on as the nebbish songwriter Geoff Goddard; while Joseph Morgan is supremely shallow as gay love interest Heinz and William Woods, Tarl Caple and David Hayler add laughs as the put-upon backing band. Much as it pains me to say it, Moran may well have a more successful career writing plays than appearing in them.

Until Sept 10
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