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On tour from London’s West End, Faulty Towers The Dining Experience has arrived in Birmingham.

It is a show which allows you to step inside the iconic TV series and become part of the action itself.

When the audience become diners in the ‘Faulty Towers’ restaurant, pretty much anything can happen – because 70% of the show is improvised.

The fun starts as guests wait to be seated. It then hurtles along in a two-hour tour de force of gags and shambolic service as Basil, Sybil and Manuel serve a ‘70s-style (but delicious) three-course meal together with a good dollop of mayhem at the Banqueting Suite at Birmingham’s Council House, a beautiful Grade II-listed venue in the heart of the city centre.

Faulty Towers the Dining Experience is now the longest running immersive production in the UK.

Devised by Alison Pollard-Mansergh, Andrew Foreman and others, the show has been touring the UK and internationally since 2008, having appeared in 43 countries to date and over 1000 venues, with approximately 400 shows per year on average across the UK. And it’d easy to see why.

Invited to become a guest at the table during the first few days of its local run, I arrived with an open mind. Would this dining experience leave me fully satisfied or would I have had a belly full by the end? I’m delighted to concede it was the former and would not hesitate to recommend for a night out with friends or family. It seemed a particular popular choice as a birthday celebration on the night I was there. Nothing better than immersive experience such as this to break the ice and guarantee a fun night.

Avoiding spoilers, I would just say, go with a group of people who are game for a laugh (not one for the shrinking violets in your friendship circle) and prepare to become part of the mayhem.

For Fawlty Towers fans, this is the opportunity to enjoy an evening encapsulating the most iconic scenes and comedy from all 12 episodes of the show, from drunken chef and an escapee rat (don’t worry – not a real one!) through to bungled fire drills and Basil’s famous goosestep.

Expect the unexpected from this very talented trio who brilliantly capture their characters’ mannerisms in a madcap evening of – often physical – comedy you’ll remember for a long time.

Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is in Birmingham until November 3^rd and tickets are available HERE.

Walking back to their apartment late one night, a tragic encounter sees Sam murdered and his girlfriend Molly alone, in despair and utterly lost. With the help of a phony storefront psychic, Sam, trapped between this world and the next, tries to communicate with Molly in the hope of saving her from grave danger.

Despite the scenario, Jacqui Dubois brings a lot of laughs, stealing the show as she reprises her iconic role as the not not-so-psychic psychic, ‘Oda Mae Brown.’ While Rebekah Lowings and James Mateo-Salt show incredible chemistry on stage, having us convinced of their deep adoration for each other.

The movie Ghost is one of cinema’s biggest all-time hits. Starring the late Patrick Swayze, alongside Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, it was the highest grossing film of 1990 and won an Oscar for screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin who has adapted his screenplay for this musical.

Quite a legacy to honour then but what results is a polished and touching production that rightly earned its standing ovation. The staging and lighting worked well in separating the present with the afterlife and was timed to perfection. After all, this was never going to be an easy task – ‘dead’ bodies deftly appearing out of nowhere and actors jumping in to embody the psychic in order to communicate with the living!

Director Bob Thompson, writer Bruce Joel Rubin and team have succeeded in taking a classic film and turning it into a show that can stand on its own merits, combining key familiar elements of the story with some minor reworks as well as modernising the story and set.

It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a show that is packed full of spirit, helped in no small measure by the delightful score – courtesy of Eurythmics’ Dave Steward – and including the song synonymous with one of the most famous romantic movie scenes in cinematic history, Unchained Melody. (Potters’ wheels have never been seen quite the same way since!)

A successful stage transition combines with stunning score and all-round talented cast and crew to make this one of my most memorable theatre experiences of the year (and I have a lot to choose from!)

Aside from the sad storyline running through, there are also plenty of belly laughs to be had. Either way, you’ll be damp of cheek! Be sure to pop a tissue in your pocket before leaving the house.

Ghost: The Musical plays at The Belgrade Theatre until Saturday. Tickets available here.

Set during ferocious presidential elections in a former communist Eastern European country, The New Real sees two American political strategists engaged in a grudge match far from home, working for competing candidates, and redrawing the political faultline.

It opens in the early 2000s, just ahead of the year’s US election in a world where populist leaders are transforming the political landscape. The New Real explores the battle between mainstream politics and a new national-populist Right.

Our protagonist takes the form of Rachel Moss, brilliantly played by Martina Laird, and who shows great on-stage chemistry with her bitter rival – and fleeting love interest – Larry Yeates (Lloyd Owen), the pair more than competently supported by a versatile cast switching between roles – with the help of changing wigs and accents.

Our strategists think they’ve come to teach the East how to do elections, but is the learning the other way around? And will what they’ve learned spread to Western Europe, Britain and America? An origin story of the contemporary political scene, writer David Edgar’s panoramic play explores the wider themes of how political and personal ideals are expressed, challenged and betrayed.

There are laughs along the way too, a Eurovision Song Contest scene being particularly memorable for bringing some respite to all the political tension. But, far from shying away from the difficult political questions – it puts them front and centre in what, at times, is an uncomfortable watch.

But it’s director Holly Race Roughan who says it best: “Through sharp characterisation, wit, and impeccable plotting, this show lays bare how the lines between truth and fiction have been blurred in the 21st Century’s pursuit of power, challenging our fundamental understanding of freedom and democracy.”

The New Real is an incisive examination of the intense political and cultural polarisation we’re all living through – and couldn’t be more timely. At just under three hours, you will need to buckle in for a show that’s as sobering as it is entertaining.

But is not to be missed!

It plays at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon until November 2^nd. Tickets available HERE.