PICTURE the scene. Two London back gardens on a Saturday afternoon. In one, a young, upwardly mobile couple are planning a barbecue to celebrate the completion of their home renovations. Next door, in slightly shabbier surroundings, an old man reads Hello magazine.

And so the stage is set for Party Piece, ripe with comic promise and farcical goings-on as the two neighbouring cultures collide.

Or so the programme leads one to believe - but then how many times have you headed for a party hoping for a rip roaring night out and then been glad to get away in time to catch Newsnight?

Richard Harris is a playwright to be reckoned with and you'd think you'd be on a fairly safe bet with the co-creator of TV's Shoestring, Outside Edge and the multi award-winner who's also had a hand with scripts of The Darling Buds of May, A Touch of Frost and The Last Detective.

This is a little more than a string of mildly comic scenarios taking place either side of a virtually non-existence fence, in the main unrelated to each other - certainly in the first half.

What interaction there is between each side is certainly not the stuff of a Neighbours from Hell episode.

Eventually all end up at a barbecue, along with a couple of guests who eventually wander back to the old man's house, the party lights blow up, the doctor gets showered in water, everyone goes home and, er, that's it.

Thank goodness the old man is played by George Cole, who is always worth the price of a ticket. But he really does have all the best lines and moments, which he plays to the hilt.

Everybody works hard, full marks for Katie Russell standing in for an indisposed Finty Williams, but apart from a few laugh aloud moments, I was left wondering if anything really was going to happen - and I didn't really care if it did.

Party Pieces plays at Malvern Theatres until Saturday. Box office: 01684 892277. JK