The wooden desk/counter set, which doubles (or is it triples…) as a chemist, family business and bar, is where we mostly see George helping people in the town. In its various guises, we see him as a teenager saving the reputation of Mr Gower by spotting a fatal mistake with a medication prescription, and the emotion portrayed by actor John Booth, from being the sad, grumpy man to one who owes his life to another was clear to see. This is also when we first encounter Mary but her being younger than George is so very obvious when they are children so he doesn’t notice her. 

As young adults, George and Mary are reconnected and enjoy a night dancing at a party where George starts to notice her as someone of potential interest, meanwhile she has loved him practically her whole life! The chemistry between the two actors is palpable and after leaving the party, they take a moonlit walk together where the iconic line is uttered by George, “You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” And Matthew Parry and James Clifford’s lighting team actually gave us a moon, which put a big smile on my face! This precious moment is interrupted with terrible news, and is one of many pivotal moments in the trajectory of George’s life. Up till now, he worked at the family business, Building and Loan, but after what happens with his father, and the threat of Bedford Falls’ richest man, Mr Potter, played so brilliantly dastardly by Stuart McNeil, who gives us a good villain to boo in the bows, George is effectively forced to abandon his travel and college plans to run the company. 

Over the course of their wonderful love story, George is the man of the people, working hard every day, but Mary is his rock. The elegance and strength that Emily Duffy brings to her portrayal of Mary just makes you really like her and want to be her friend. A truly dependable woman, which we see demonstrated when George suffers yet another setback with the company, and she gallantly offers their personal honeymoon money to help the townsfolk and save the company from Mr Potter. She then surprises George with the run-down old house on a rainy night, thank you to the sound engineer Andy Walker for bringing the rain effects, I was literally looking for my umbrella! This is when the back of the stage is utilised, curtains parting to reveal a candlelit dinner as Mary sells her idea for making this their home. In the second act of the play, there is a lovely surprise when the curtains open once again to reveal a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, sparking an involuntary audible gasp of awe from the audience, including me!

Seemingly innocuous decisions set in motion consequences that George could have never foreseen. Hearing loss in one ear as a child when he saved his brother Harry from drowning would make him medically exempt from enlisting in the war years later, where Harry would become a war hero; his agreement to work in the family business with the plan that Harry would take over after college and George could finally travel were scuppered when Harry met a girl, married her and his father-in-law offered him a stable job; a missed opportunity when did not take his friend Sam Wainwright, (played by Nita Lawton, who took on the role of a man and she owned it) up on his offer to invest in his business that resulted in big money success; the recurrent presence of Mr Potter trying to secure the company and then the event that ultimately breaks George.