Review: Someone's Knockin' at the Door | A Play, A Pie and A Pint
- Lisa in the theatre
- Feb 25
- 3 min read
The first show of A Play, A Pie and A Pint's Spring 2026 season is Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door by Milly Sweeney. The comedy-drama about a couple who head to the Mull of Kintyre to find Paul McCartney is directed by Sally Reid and stars Jonathan Watson and Maureen Carr. Read my review below.
Someone's Knockin' at the Door | A Play, A Pie and A Pint ★★★☆☆
Review: 24 February 2026 | Òran Mór, Glasgow
The Spring season at Glasgow's pastry-fueled, lunchtime theatre programme, A Play, A Pie and A Pint has opened this week with comedy drama Someone's Knockin' at the Door.
Inspired by the true story of one couple's magical mystery tour to find their favourite Beatle, Someone’s Knockin’ at the Door, by rising playwright Milly Sweeney, (who won Best Writer at The Stage Debut Awards in 2025 nonetheless!) is entrusted to the accomplished Sally Reid who directs Two Doors Down's Jonathan Watson alongside Still Game's Maureen Carr.
In Sweeney's sentimental play, Jack (Jonathan Watson) and Kathy (Maureen Carr) are helping their granddaughter Molly with a school project. Framed as audio interviews, each grandparent separately recounts their memories of the time when, 50 years ago in 1976, they set out on an adventure to Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre in search of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
Beatle-fanatic Jack's stories are full of anecdotes about his idols, the Fab Four, while Kathy is more pensive about their hurried marriage and life struggles. Can she ever forgive him for taking her on a much-needed holiday to the remote and rugged Kintyre peninsula during the scorching hot summer of 1976?
What works brilliantly here is the clever writing and direction of the interviews, with the dialogue expertly timed for maximum comic impact. Jack and Kathy's stories are recounted simultaneously, and as each contradicts the other's recollections with a natural ease and deadpan delivery, the less-than-glamorous truth of their adventure comes to light.
In search of McCartney on the Mull of Kintyre
After Paul McCartney split from the Beatles and formed the band Wings, it was rumoured that he was living "off-grid" on the Mull of Kintyre - an experience that inspired the famous hit song. Someone's Knockin' at the Door imagines what could have happened if a couple of random fans were to try to find him, and well, knock on his door.
But really the heart of this play, and the majority of the storyline, is about family and relationships. It's a cosy, intriguing nostalgia trip to the 1970s and a time when it wasn't unusual for a young couple to be forced to marry because of an unplanned pregnancy. Through the eyes (or school project) of their granddaughter, we learn what one such relationship looks like 50 years later.
There's not a huge amount to it, and the play is short, but Watson and Carr are both wonderfully warm and charming. Someone's Knockin' at the Door is a fun, sweet, original story, delivered well and with some cracking Beatles facts thrown in as a bonus. ★★★☆☆
Someone's Knockin' at the Door plays Òran Mór, Glasgow from 23 -28 February and then tours to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Pitlochry. It is co-presented with Aberdeen Performing Arts, Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Traverse Theatre.
MORE: Find out about all the exciting shows coming up in A Play, A Pie and A Pint's Spring 2026 season: https://www.lisainthetheatre.com/post/play-pie-pint-spring-2026-shows
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