BILLY has an imagination so much bigger than the small northern town and small semi he is confined in. He makes up stories, tells fibs, exaggerates events his aunties and uncles always seem to be having their leg off. He is, quite definitely, a liar.

Ralf Little, who takes on this role which was first immortalised by Albert Finney in 1975, is a brilliant Billy. He manages to capture Billy's frustration with his parents not being able to understand him and is able to add pathos to the role so you really feel for him.

The play first written by Keith Waterhouse in 1959. The set, the front room, just reeks of that era with its brown walls, bottle green doors, heavy post-war furniture and a fireplace.

Billy is a bright grammar school lad whose imagination gets him into trouble. He dreams of being a scriptwriter in London and says he has a letter from a top scriptwriter offering him a job but no one really believes him.

He has got himself engaged to two local girls foul-mouthed Rita (Sarah Churm, At Home with the Braithwaites) and chubby Barbara (Rachel Leskovac, Holby City). Trouble arises when the two girls realise what he has done. Sarah Churm is marvellous as Rita spitting words as if they were daggers at poor prim Barbara whose dream is to live in a cottage in Devon.

Then his grandma (Doreen Mantle, One Foot in the Grave), who talks to the cupboard, dies the night of the big row between the two fiances. Doreen is excellent in the role of the grandma, so are Paul Copley who plays the father and Tracie Bennett who takes on the role as the mother.

Then Liz (Joanna Page), another girlfriend, comes back home having been away for five weeks.

Joanna is excellent in the role.

She is the only one who can empathise with Billy and encourages him to follow his dream.