JOHN Smith, the character played by Garry Blair in HATS Theatre Group’s production of Run for your Wife, is a happy chappy.

He light-heartedly drives a taxi around Urmston and Eccles ­— having a different wife in each place both unaware of the other.

The Ray Cooney farce set in the 1990s, has the audience in stitches, as the lying, cheating, yet lovable bigamist is cornered after ending up in hospital.

Gradually, the lies become more impossible and amusing.

Colin Baker, as Stanley Gardner, has to be the star of the show with his elastic facial expressions and physical gestures. When at desperation point his voice reaches a staccato croak!

The two wives, played by Debbie Dickerson and Maria Holloway, are innocently caught up in the shenanigans, without realising how they are contributing to the fun. I love Debbie’s hysterical outburst near the end.

Inadvertently, two police officers also get tangled in the web. They are Anita Partridge, as Detective Sergeant Troughton from Urmston, and Phil Bradbury, as Detective Sergeant Porterhouse from Eccles.

The two different houses are captured together on set by John Cockshott, David Bramwell and helpers enabling us to spy with our little eyes on what is going on in each.

The lighting and sound of Ashley Stokes and Peter Dronsfield must be commended especially when telephones and doorbells ring on time.

You will leave this show, which is a tribute to Adam Wright’s solo directional debut, still chuckling.

* Run for your wife is at St Hugh of Lincoln Parish Hall, Glastonbury Road, Stretford, until Saturday, April 6. For tickets, telephone 0161 748 5040, Star rating: * * * * *