by Ian Hay
Adapted for radio by Peggy Wells

[Starring] Jack Hulbert

The boys call him The Moke, and as his name is Charles Donkin we can quite easily follow this train of thought in the schoolboy mind. He is an elderly housemaster at one of our best public schools and a confirmed bachelor. His bachelorhood was confirmed many years ago when the only girl he really loved turned him down in favour of a wayward and erratic artist. She has now been dead fourteen years. Her young son is a member of Donkin's house and her three daughters are with their father in Paris, but under the care of a strong-minded aunt. At least they were in Paris, but within a few minutes of the opening of the play they are honking their motor horn in the quadrangle of the school. Their aunt has decided that Parisian life is not good for them (whether Paris is demoralising them or they are demoralising Paris is apparently a moot point) and she has decided to plant them for a time on their 'joint godfather.' That is how she explains the matter, tersely, concisely, and unanswerably, to the unfortunate Charles. Can we imagine the effect these sweet. wild, unmanageable young things have on a strictly disciplined boys' school, ruled by a strictly disciplinary headmaster? Well, we can have a try; but the actual results are far funnier than our imagination can encompass.
(Stephen Williams)

Saturday-Night Theatre at 9.15