The Stage

Chit chat - War of words

Published Tuesday 1 December 2009 at 11:50 by Tabard

Tabard was amused to see the already well documented animosity between Tim Walker, the Sunday Telegraph’s theatre critic, and a collection of his critical colleagues spilling over into the national press this week.

So nasty has the spat got that it was picked up by Private Eye’s Hackwatchcolumn. After some verbal sparring between Walker and his nemesis Ian Shuttleworth (critic for the Financial Times and editor of Theatre Record) which essentially amounted to Walker calling Shuttleworth fat and Shuttleworth calling Walker stupid, the whole thing nearly got physical at a National Theatre press night last week.

According to the Eye, “Fleet Street critics always gather during the interval at West End first nights for a drink laid on by the theatre; but at present these gatherings have the atmosphere of a pub fight thanks to Tim “Wanker” Walker of the Sunday Telegraph and Ian “Shutters” Shuttleworth of the Financial Times…

“Things were therefore awkward during the interval drinks at the National last week for the first night of Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art. Shuttleworth and his gang stood on one side of the room while Walker (who had taken along his old Mail chum Rod Gilchrist to provide covering fire) stood on the other. Gilchrist, after a couple of glasses of free vino, bawled: “Tell me, Tim, which of those fat c***s over there keeps taking a pop at you?” At which point the National’s press officers moved between the two camps, fearing there was about to be a punch-up.”

Three observations about the Eye piece.

One - it’s pretty clear to see where the paper’s sympathies lie from the choice of nicknames. Two - really, the only thing that could have completed the scene was if someone at the National had started to hum The Rumble from West Side Story. Three - maybe the National needs to introduce a naughty step for misbehaving critics.