As part of our recent holiday, we took an overnight break in London – a chance to stay somewhere we could get a long, hot shower (moderately reasonable prices on the Imperial campus although pricier for one night than the combined cost of the other six nights under canvas), visit a museum (V&A) and take in a show.

That show was Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5. It is based on the 1980 movie of the same name, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in full. It met the bill of being an entertaining musical with high standards in music, dancing and overall presentation. However, I don’t think I’ll rush to go back. I think the misogynistic office culture it depicts is much less prominent than it was 40 years ago and a good result is reached by some pretty questionable means. A few tweaks and I think the main characters could have been much more in the role of heroines rather than anti-heroes.

Oh, and people kept stopping what they were doing and breaking into song (although, to be fair, that is pretty much par for the course in the genre). Ah well, an experience to remember although not quite the highlight of the holiday it could have been.