The Goes Wrong Show - "Harper’s Locket"

by Mark Murton

Original Air Date: January 24, 2020

Starring: Stuart

Director: Martin Dennis

This review contains a (comic) Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!

Synopsis: This week, accident-prone amateur dramatics group the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society attempt a period romance; a tale of family, duty and love across the class divide.

Featured Feline: The episode opens with Bernard Fennick (Henry Lewis as actor Robert Grove) holding a fluffy white cat while waiting his turn to play in a game of croquet with his daughter Celeste (Charlie Russell as actress Sandra Wilkinson) and her fiancé Edwin (Henry Shields as actor Chris Bean), while his other daughter Emily (Nancy Zamit as actress Annie Twilloil) paints the scene.

The Goes Wrong Show - Harper's Locket - Bernard Robert Henry Lewis holding white Persian cat on lawn with Celeste Sandra Charlie Russell, Edwin Chris Henry Shields and Emily Annie Nancy Zamit

The Goes Wrong Show - Harper's Locket - Bernard Robert Henry Lewis holding white Persian cat on lawn with Celeste Sandra Charlie Russell and Edwin Chris Henry Shields

Fennick places the cat on the ground, but the cat doesn’t run off as planned so the stage manager Trevor (Chris Leask) creeps on stage to remove the cat.

The Goes Wrong Show - Harper's Locket - Bernard Robert Henry Lewis, Celeste Sandra Charlie Russell and Edwin Chris Henry Shields looking at Trevor Chris Leask removing white Persian cat from lawn

Soon the action moves inside and the cat is sitting contentedly in a wicker chair.

The Goes Wrong Show - Harper's Locket - white Persian cat sitting on wicker chair

Comic Kitty Carnage Warning! Emily is now playing the piano as the trio sing. The song finishes but as the group move away from the piano the music starts up again, forcing them to quickly return to the piano and reprise the song. Again they try to move on but again the music keeps playing so they try to quell the noise by grabbing and stuffing cushions into the top of the piano in an attempt to jam up the works of the device inside supplying the music. Inevitably, the cat is mistakenly seized instead of a cushion and hurled into the piano, among flying fur and comedy cat squeals. A fake cat is clearly used for this action.

The Goes Wrong Show - Harper's Locket - Bernard Robert Henry Lewis throwing fake white Persian cat at piano with Edwin Chris Henry Shields and Emily Annie Nancy Zamit

As the story continues cat sounds still occasionally emanate from the piano (supplied by cast member Byrony Corrigan). Near the end of the episode Emily returns to the piano and as she plays and the others sing, the cat, or rather the flat fake version, flies out of the piano and attacks her.

The Goes Wrong Show - Harper's Locket - Bernard Robert Henry Lewis, Celeste Sandra Charlie Russell and Edwin Chris Henry Shields reacting as fake cat attacks Emily Annie Nancy Zamit at piamo

Behind the Scenes

The Mischief team behind The Goes Wrong Show discuss each episode in a “goes-wrong-along” on their YouTube channel and in this one we learn that the cat actor’s name was Stuart, that he is ten years old and, as Chris Leask reveals ruefully, has “More credits than I do.”

We also learn that Chris / Trevor picking up the cat was inspired by a real event. When the cat was supposed to walk off but didn’t, the lady in charge of the cat crept into shot to take him. They then decided to incorporate this into the script.

Reality Cat: During the discussion, Mischief team members Charlie Russell and Dave Hearn are interrupted by their tuxedo cat, Angel (who also appears with them in the other “goes-wrong-alongs”.)