Father of all farce casts Blunkett as the innocent
FIRST it was David Blunkett the Musical. Now, in a whole new meaning to a Whitehall farce, we have David Blunkett the comedy drama.
Toby Young, the former Modern Review editor and former Vanity Fair writer, has written a mischievious new play, Who’s the Daddy?, which is set in the Spectator offices. It will reheat every aspect of the Kimberly Quinn affair.
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It will be uncomfortable for Boris Johnson, the Spectator Editor, as it re-enacts his affair with Petronella Wyatt, a columnist on the magazine.
Michael Howard is in there too, as he sacks and reinstates Johnson several times. Blunkett — whose affair with Quinn, the publisher of The Spectator, set in chain a series of events that cost him his job as Home Secretary — is portrayed as an innocent.
By contrast Quinn, whose first child was fathered by Blunkett (the second, she says, was by her husband, Stephen), is portrayed as an “adventurer”.
Rod Liddle, assistant editor of The Spectator whose marriage collapsed over his affair with a secretary half his age who also works on the magazine, has a cameo role.
Young, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, has written it with Lloyd Evans, a fellow theatre critic on The Spectator (well, they are at the moment) and Jeremy Lloyd, creator of the camp classic Are You Being Served?
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It will be staged at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington, which admits guidedogs. “It’s sweet revenge for me,” said Young. “Kimberly took me to lunch, plied me with alcohol, but did not make a pass. I have been smarting ever since.”
people@thetimes.co.uk