Aunt Arabelle in Charge

In 2012, as part of Winchester's Best of British Festival in celebration of the Jubilee, Martin Jarvis performed the second of two of Richmal Crompton's comic classics, live on-stage.

In Aunt Arabelle in Charge, William and his faithful Outlaws (Ginger, Douglas and Henry) encounter a strangely complacent six year old who is staying in the village. This odious child turns out to be the hugely famous Anthony Martin, subject of his mother's best-selling books and poems.

The Outlaws need to redeem themselves in the admittedly short-sighted eyes of Ginger's journalist aunt. She, equally, is desperate to secure an exclusive interview with the child star. It's soon clear that this wonderfully constructed story is a brilliant parody of - who else - A.A. Milne's Christopher Robin.

The packed Winchester audience understood this at once. In Jarvis' inhabitation of both the smug infant and Ginger's aunt, the comedy is unremitting.

Can William sort this out and, incidentally, give the horrific child his just deserts? Blackmail is the answer, of course.

Performed by Martin Jarvis
Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.