OUR local Operatic Society has a new home during the Civic’s restoration – the beautiful Princess Alexandra Auditorium at Yarm School.

Spacious yet intimate, it’s a great venue and ideal for this manic (and largely inaccurate) musical version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Julian Cound is excellent as Arthur, a well-deserved plum role which gives him an opportunity not only to use his richly-toned singing voice, but his talent for comedy, too; the “straight” character is the most difficult to play successfully and Julian succeeds in spades.

Arthur’s faithful retainer Patsy, a sort of ever-present Baldrick character, is endearingly played by Eddie Jones who has the audience in the palm of his hand especially as Arthur sings I’m All Alone. A very neat comic turn.

The Knights are an inept lot to say the least; Richard Hamilton’s Brave Sir Robin and Jason Slater as flatulent Sir Bedevere, with multilingual Leighton Taylor playing a French taunter and a Knight of Ni as well as a delightfully camp Sir Lancelot.

Ruby Hoggarth is quite a find as the Lady of the Lake, having fun with her astonishingly versatile vocal skills. I enjoyed Ed Gill’s Not Dead Fred, too, and his minstrel was very funny.

The gold medal goes to Luke Oldfield, who stepped into the major part of Sir Galahad at short notice following Neil Harland’s accident and makes it his own. An undeniable talent.

Each time I see a DOS production I think it’s the best they’ve ever done. But this time they really have surpassed themselves. I absolutely loved it!

Until Saturday, October 29.

Tickets www.darlingtonos.org.uk or 01325 244659

Sue Heath