Here they chat with Simon Button about the play, their roles in the production and performing at the Theatre Royal Bath.

What are audiences in store for when they come see the show

Janie: I don’t like telling people what they can expect because I think it’s really nice to be surprised when you come to the theatre.

Griff: [Laughs] So it’s up to me to spoil the surprise! But what I will say is that it’s a very vibrant two-hander about a husband and wife who come to a very simple hurdle to cross together which actually causes a rift between them. It’s a comedy that chimes with people because they go ‘Oh my God, that’s so like us’.

What hooked you in about it?

Janie: Belinda Lang [the director] has translated it from a French play and she’s done a wonderful job. Then knowing Griff was going to be the husband was very exciting. It’s also interesting to me because the life of this woman is not my life. She stayed home and looked after the kids, and it’s very interesting to me what she’s going through at this point.

Griff: I’d heard about the play and was interested in it, plus when you reach a certain age there aren’t so many parts available to you. We did the read-through and I found it so funny. It’s a great romp, an emotional rollercoaster, and especially in Belinda’s translation it has a freshness. It’s very well-written and it has an amazing structure. It has a beginning, a middle and an end, all in one fell swoop.

Janie: You don’t know where it’s going. You don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Griff: It’s quite challenging for us as actors because there’s a bit of this, a bit of that, and you have to stay on your toes.

How would you describe your respective characters?

Griff: Peter is a financial advisor, he’s quite successful and he probably spends quite a lot of time pouring over tax forms and all that. You get the impression that he’s been very dedicated to his work; he’s built up a company. Without giving too much away, this is a time in his life where he’s facing retirement and change.

Janie: Laura has been a really active person in her youth and that energy she has goes into the housekeeping, her children, and her husband. She organises everything and the things she used to be when she was younger get put to one side. The main thing is she’s decisive; she’s very good at making decisions.

Have you worked together before?

Janie: It feels like we’ve worked together before, but we haven’t. It’s very easy and we already have a shorthand with each other, which you get with people you’ve collaborated with previously. Maybe it’s because we did the read-through about a year ago.

Griff: It’s a joy. I spent a lot of my life in a double act and the reason Mel (Smith), and I continued for so long – we did 11 series over 13 years together – is because we got along so well and had a way of working together. If you have to wander round each other very carefully all the time it just doesn’t work. It’s as important to be able to say ‘No, don’t do that’ as it is to go ‘I love what you’re doing’. 

How is it working with director Belinda Lang?

Griff: It’s lovely. She’s very secure, which is important, because she knows what she wants. She’s very patient.

Janie: She has a very good understanding of the text so she’s ahead of it whilst also allowing us to play with it, finding out what we want to do. We’re under the cosh a bit because we only have three weeks’ rehearsal and we’ll have to put in a few extra hours, but she’s keeping it very calm and jolly in the rehearsal room and that’s really helpful because otherwise you just get tight with panic and that’s not good.

You’re both returning to the Theatre Royal Bath. What do you enjoy about performing there?

Griff: It’s a wonderful theatre with a beautiful auditorium.

Janie: I love it. I’ve played a lot of beautiful auditoriums and Bath is one of the most beautiful. It has a warmth, which partly comes from the audiences in Bath. They really love their theatre.

Griff: I remember when we did a show called An Absolute Turkey there and they couldn’t get the sets in. I think the first preview lasted nearly four hours because there were these enormous pauses where they couldn’t get the scenery onto the stage. But the audience were so lovely and loyal and there was never a moment, after the various stops and starts, where we went back on, and everybody had gone home because they’d got fed up of waiting. They were so patient.

When were you last on stage and how was it treading the boards again after lockdown?

Janie: I tried to keep creating events during lockdown, including an outdoor staging of A Little Night Music at Opera Holland Park, that got myself and my friends out because I felt like everyone needed a project. So, I didn’t really have the break some other people had but the second lockdown did me in a bit. Coming back with Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike in the West End, after doing it in Bath in 2019, was lovely. It’s been a bit tentative, to be honest, and before Christmas it felt like we were really brave and courageous and so were the audiences. But now it feels like we’re returning to normal.

Griff: I was doing my one-man show in early 2020 and just as a joke I came on wearing a mask because the COVID thing was just breaking. It got a huge laugh from the audience, I took the mask off and joked ‘I’m sorry about that, I was just doing some sanding’. Then a week later there was lockdown and that was the end of everything for quite a while. But I’m a patron of a little theatre in Bowness called the Old Laundry and when it was possible, I did my one-man show again last November as well as a charity show in Ipswich.

Janie: When we did A Little Night Music it rained, and I thought it would be a disaster. But it turned out to be a triumph. It went from trickling rain, to proper rain, to where it felt like God was throwing buckets down from heaven and I worried everyone would leave but they all stayed. It lifted everybody up and people told me afterwards ‘We didn’t want to leave because it felt so good to be back seeing live theatre’. It proved to me how wonderful theatre is and how much we love it in this country. 

Times have been tough, especially for regional theatres. How important is it that plays like this get to tour the country?

Janie: It’s so important and I love touring. I love meeting new people and seeing different places. It’s so important to keep it going. We have to keep it going.

Griff: I especially love playing the older theatres. I go all over the country with my one-man show. The last tour was around 80 dates, mainly in smaller venues, so it’s always a thrill when you come to somewhere like the Theatre Royal Bath. Frank Matcham theatres are also great to play, as are most Victorian theatres. There’s a wonderful intimacy about them, even the bigger ones.

Janie: Another thing about regional theatre is that it brings people together. In these changing times, where people don’t go to church as much as they used to, theatres give you a place to come and have a think, a laugh, an occasion, a discussion, and an escape maybe. They serve the community.

An Hour And A Half Late appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Wednesday 16^th to Saturday 26^th February prior to a UK tour. Tickets are on sale at the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk