Cat Burglar

In the space of just under 15 minutes Lee Guilliland manages to say a surprising amount about appearance and reality, real life and film, watchers and doers.

And best of all this cinematic equivalent of the short story with a twist in the tail manages to be always accessible and entertaining … not a dirty word in my book.

Sid Owen, escapee from Eastenders, is ideal as Thomas, the chauffeur turned cat-sitter, who takes advantage of his employer's absence to impress his girlfriend Dolores, played by Gemma Page, by pretending to be the high-flying owner of the mansion. She's refreshingly honest … having finished the expensive champagne she goes out in borrowed clothes, and returns with cheap bubbly. It's all the same stuff in different bottles, she says.

Ian Wright, in another short but exactly measured comic performance, forms the third side of the triangle as the cat burglar who gets more than he bargained for.

The entire charade is watched on closed circuit TV by the Laurel and Hardy of the security world. Thomas and his girl happily play their parts, carefree revellers in a borrowed mansion. But their sports are not the only games being played out in this house. Like the Viennetta they eat, the 'luxury" ice cream at a budget price, things are not what they seem to be.