The Sextator farce

The sex scandals at The Spectator that led to the tearful resignation of David Blunkett have been turned into a farce - written by the magazine's own theatre critics, Toby Young and Lloyd Evans.

Entitled Who's The Daddy?, the play will have a six-week run at the King's Head, Islington. Rehearsals began this week for a show that will revive some painful memories.

The Spectator earned itself a new nickname - The Sextator - after it became the epicentre of a saga that gripped the nation and entertained the magazine's Tory readership.

In classic Ray Cooney farce style, The Sextator's staff and their extra-marital lovers are seen rushing round the office and hiding in cupboards.

The script - which has been altered after advice from lawyers - will centre on three affairs: between married Spectator publisher Kimberly Quinn and former home secretary Mr Blunkett, between married editor Boris Johnson and writer Petronella "Petsy" Wyatt and between the then-married, self-confessed Viagra user and Spectator writer Rod Liddle and receptionist Alicia Munckton.

After legal advice, Miss Munckton is not named in the script. However the character Tiffany - who will be played by EastEnders actress Michelle Ryan - just happens to work as a secretary at the magazine.

The other five cheating lovers are named and the first half ends in what Mr Young calls a "shagathon" in the office of Johnson, MP for Henley.

He said: "Boris and Petsy are under a bed, Kimberly and Blunkett are on top of it and Rod and Tiffany are in a cupboard." At one point Mr Blunkett is in a Spider-man outfit, clutching a Fathers 4 Justice banner.

The script includes lines from real-life, including Mrs Quinn's: "I've always wondered what it would be like to sleep with a blind man," and Mr Johnson's reaction when first challenged about his affair with Ms Wyatt: "It's an inverted pyramid of piffle."

Mr Young says he and Mr Evans wrote the play as a bit of fun and had hoped to perform it at this summer's Spectator party. However, when producers Nica Burns and Ian Osborne read it, they decided it merited a wider audience. Mr Osborne asked farcemaster Jeremy Lloyd, creator of 'Allo 'Allo! and Are You Being Served? to work on the script with its authors.