THE indisputable star of MPO Musical Theatre’s production of Betty Blue Eyes at Milborne Port village hall is Betty herself – and that’s just as it should be. There is a great song entitled Steal the Pig in Stiles and Drewe’s musical version of Alan Bennett’s 1984 film A Private Function, and the endlessly inventive technical team at Milborne Port have renamed it Build the Pig.

Betty, her magnificently twinkling eyes leading the charge, was designed and built by Neil Harrison-Shaw (who also played Farmer Sutcliffe), with skin by Duncan Gray, 3D printed elements by Oscar Shave-Smythies (also Mr Metcalf and Prince Philip), and brought to enchanting life by Molly Edwards and Jim Bailward. Previous productions of the Cameron Mackintosh musical inspired by the original film have had animatronic, puppet and “acted” versions of Betty, but the Somerset porker is far the best I have seen.

The story is set in Shepardsford in Yorkshire in 1947, seven years before the end of the food rationing that followed the Second World War. The great and the good of the town have decided to organise an invitation-only dinner to celebrate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Lt Philip Mountbatten, and have procured an illegal pig to form the centrepiece of the banquet.

Some time before the function, a chiropodist called Gilbert Chilvers, with his social-climbing, piano-teaching wife Joyce and her 74-year-old mother, have arrived in town. Joyce feels her position as one of the elite, and can’t grasp why they are not accepted. When Gilbert sees premises on The Parade, he hopes his position will be secured, but the three arch dinner plotters, Dr Swaby, accountant Henry Allardyce and solicitor Francis Lockwood, have other ideas, not wanting their carefully-crafted cabal to be invaded.

But porcine fate intervenes as Gilbert is visiting Farmer Sutcliffe’s farm to treat Mrs Sutcliffe with his “magic fingers” and discovers that Betty the Pig is not only resident, but lame. Following in the footsteps of Androcles, our chiropodist removes a nail from Betty’s trotter and discovers the location of the illicit pork. When the lease on the Parade shop is refused, he decides to Steal the Pig. And that’s just the beginning ……

The MPO show is directed by Gemma Shave-Smythies, and the cast is led by Martin Porter as Gilbert, Rachel Milestone-McAdorey as Joyce and the charismatic Karen Pankhurst as Mother Dear – their “Pig? No Pig!” was an absolute highlight – with Anthony White as meat inspector Wormold, Ben Cliffe as a rather touching Henry Allardyce, Chris Bailward as an authoritarian Dr Swaby and Samuel Kelly as the solicitor.

The company’s new musical director is Jacky Manning, assisted by David Grierson at the piano and a lively orchestra.

The costumes evoked the atmosphere of the age – but Gilbert, as an aspiring professional and husband of a fledgling Hyacinth Bucket – should never have worn a flat cap!

The company was blighted by a technical problems with the lighting, which accentuated the inherent difficulties of a deep and largely black set and the need to move and cover cumbersome scenery. But Betty made up for it all.

GP-W