Gloriously entertaining: Backstairs Billy, at the Duke of York’s Theatre, reviewed

Backstairs Billy is a biographical comedy about William Tallon, who worked as the Queen Mother’s chief footman for years following the death of George VI in 1952. Tallon was an enthusiastic gay cottager whom the tabloids suggestively dubbed ‘backstairs Billy’ during the 1970s when attitudes to homosexuality were growing more enlightened.

The show, directed by Michael Grandage, is set in 1979 and Luke Evans plays Billy as a swaggering charismatic stud who loves his role as the unofficial head of the Queen Mum’s household. He adores his employer, ‘the last Empress of India’, and he praises her decision to remain in London during the Blitz rather than decamping to safety in the countryside or overseas.

New staff members are given a crash course in the history of royal palaces – ‘you’ll open doors that are older than democracy’. And they’re invited to take part in the house’s free-and-easy sexual culture.