Andrews Stars in Toksvig’s Bully Boy at Nuffield

The play, which tackles the “challenging moral issues of contemporary military occupation”, centres on Major Oscar Hadley who is flown to the front line to probe allegations of severe misconduct within a self-styled ‘Bully Boy’ unit of the British army.

When young squaddie Eddie Clark from Burnley is interrogated, Oscar begins to discover that ‘truth’ in a modern insurgency can be a point of view rather than a fact.

As well as her career as a comedian, author and presenter, Sandi Toksvig is also the artistic director of the Sky Arts Theatre Live season, which last year premiered works by writers including Eve Ensler, Frank McGuinness and Mark Ravenhill. Her first play, Charity Begins, premiered as part of the 2009 season, directed by Sandford (whose other recent credits include The House of Bernarda Alba and A Streetcar Named Desire).

The cast features Anthony Andrews and newcomer Joshua Miles. Andrews achieved international fame for his award-winning performance as Sebastian Flyte in the 1981 television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. His other screen credits include Under the Volcano, Love in a Cold Climate, Upstairs, Downstairs, and most recently, Oscar winning film The King’s Speech. His West End stage credits include Count Fosco in The Woman in White and Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady.