FILM: Run For Your Wife (12a)

First staged in 1983, Ray Cooney’s farce Run For Your Wife enjoyed an eight-year jolly in the West End. The playwright and John Luton co-direct this film adaptation shot on location in London.

Danny Dyer plays bigamous taxi driver John Smith, who enjoys the attention of two beautiful wives: Michelle (Denise Van Outen) in Stockwell and Stephanie (Sarah Harding) in Finsbury.

The two women are blissfully unaware of each other’s existence, believing that John is working the streets of the capital whenever he isn’t home with them. Keeping the spouses apart necessitates a domino rally of lies that must eventually topple over.

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That day comes when John is concussed during a mugging and emergency services alert Michelle and Stephanie. The situation spirals out of control and John calls on best mate Gary (Neil Morrissey) to throw the two women and local cop DS Troughton (Ben Cartwright) off the scent. Run for Your Wife is a huge disappointment.

Wildly over-the-top performances, which work on stage, are toe-curling in close-up and one member of main cast is more wooden than the sets.

An end credits title card promises Smith will return in a film version of stage sequel Caught In The Net. Run for your life.

Released: February 14 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas), 93 mins