Hans Christiaan’s first assignment as resident designer at Watford Palace is Frederick Lonsdale's "On Approval" which opened on August 11. It is almost a designer’s dream play, having interiors of a Mayfair house and a Scottish castle in the twenties when wealth still abounded among the privileged. Mr Christiaan shows a fine sense of period and considerable originality in his very decorative settings and costumes, cleverly conveying the atmosphere of opulence without overdoing the detail. Kay Gardner has directed the play in the same spirit; there is an endearing freshness about the production, allowing the play to be a comedy in its own right - and indeed it is a very funny one - so successfully that one laughs at the characters with no feeling time has made their situation funnier than it was forty years ago.

Pamela Vezey threw some splendid temperaments as the redoubtable Maria Wislack and Veronica Lang was pretty and convincing as Helen Hayle, the most balanced member of the ill-assorted temporary household. As their two suitors, carried off for a month in Scotland to see if they would “ do", Harvey Ashby as the Duke of Bristol personified selfish arrogance with very funny effect and Michael Bevis teamed well with him as the much put-upon Richard Halton.