Hello to Goodnight Mr Tom?

Phil Willmott 8 September, 2015, 14:00

Goodnight Mr Tom If the rumours are true, the West End, increasingly dominated by productions aimed at families, will soon have yet another heart warming show suitable for all ages.

A dramatisation of the war time weepy, GOODNIGHT MR TOM may well be coming to the Duke of Yorks Theatre.

A version by David Wood starring Oliver Ford-Davies in the title role was a big hit in London a few years ago, transferring from The Chichester Festival theatre and winning an Oliver Award. It also enjoyed a very successful TV outing starring John Thaw.

The original book by Michelle Magorian is set during the second world war and concerns an impoverished London urchin, William Beech who is sent to live in with a lonely old man, Tom Oakley, in rural Dorset to escape the bombs of the Blitz. The two strike up an unlikely friendship, fortifying the lad when his ferocious mother takes him back to London.

The Guardian's theatre critic, Michael Billington, writing about the 2013 production compared the story to Oliver Twist, pointing out that in both "a serially abused boy is rescued, and briefly lost, by a solitary senior." He praised it as a show "unafraid to target the emotions".

Let's hope it'll soon be making us cry all over again.

Goodnight Mr Tom tickets