Edward Fox Trollope in Barsetshire, 5 star review Sunday Telegraph

Trollope in Barsetshire *****

Riverside Studios, London W6 (020 8237 1111) to April 6

Few actors possess as much class - in that sense - as Edward Fox. That this charming old gent's virtuoso one-man show Trollope in Barsetshire has been consigned to the outer reaches of the capital in Hammersmith is, I fancy, a sorry comment on the West End and its values.

Class is, however, about doing one's best, no matter what. And, judged simply as a prodigious feat of memory, Fox's declamations of Trollope's works - including extracts from Barchester Towers and Framley Parsonage - over the best part of two hours is a wondrous thing.

With a whispery beard, the 73-year-old actor looks not unlike the great Victorian author himself, and, after a while, one began to believe that one was spending an evening in his company.

I have, however, always taken the view that there is a limit to how much an actor can hide behind a part. The truth is, one sees in Fox such obvious sincerity, dignity and kindness that it would be hard to resist giving him five stars even for a spirited rendition of the A-E section of the London telephone directory.