The Caretaker

Timothy Spall stars as the House guest from hell

Timothy Spall stars as the irascible tramp Davies who is taken into the home of a pair of brothers, causing utter mayhem and emotional turmoil along the way. As Harold Pinter's first commercially successful work, the play premiered in 1960, and is said to be a reflection of Pinter's life in Chiswick, when his neighbour took in a homeless man who happened to stay some weeks. With the two brothers played off against each other by the conniving visitor, we learn about their past lives and aspirations, which has fallen short of both their expectations. The arrival of Davies highlights their apparent failure, despite his own circumstances.

A three-way power struggle

When Aston (Daniel Mays) offers an elderly transient place to stay after saving him from a bar fight, it turns into a decision that he will certainly end up regretting. Davies the tramp is astonishingly rude, ungrateful and callous despite Aston's kindness, which stems from his previous experience in a mental institution. Enter Mick (George MacKay), Aston's older, bragging and violent older brother who is enraged at the living situation as Davies refuses to leave, offering to be "the caretaker" - whether it is to look after the leaky flat or the brothers themselves is deliberately left ambiguous. After a power struggle spanning some weeks, the brothers have had enough, and order Davies to leave. But can they face turfing out an old man onto the streets?

Timothy Spall has enjoyed a successful career as one of Britain's most popular character actors, having starred in Auf Wiedersehen Pet, as Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter film series, and more recently as an eye-poppingly authentic Winston Churchill in the Oscar-winning film The King's Speech.