from his ship when it arrives in Dover from Turkey. Stand decides that they must pose as French waiters at the hotel in Dover where Grobchick will be staying. ("A disguise … perhaps a thin moustache on the top lip and a pointed beard on the bottom".) George and Percy leave for Dover. Act II Seven hours later. The lounge of the Haven Hotel, DoverGeorge and Percy bluff their way onto the staff of the hotel. Among the guests is Max, an international spy. He tells his henchman Crab that he and his assistants must eliminate any agents the British government might send. George makes Percy disguise himself as Grobchick. Max, fooled, offers Percy £30,000 for his invention. The real Grobchick arrives. George and Percy help him hide. The War Office team arrives, and George and Percy panic, fearing the wrath of MI5 for their failure to neutralise Max. Percy hides up the chimney but slips down it and sets fire to his trousers. George, now disguised as a clergyman, rapidly whisks him off. Act III Scene 1 – The same. After supper Gray-Balding and Fosgrove disguise themselves and engage Grobchick in conversation. George and Percy discover that Grobchick has given the details of his invention to the hotel's head waiter for safe keeping. They retrieve them. Max, again mistaking Percy for Grobchick, demands the details of the Atomic Pile Restorer and tells them he has the hotel surrounded. Recognising Percy, Gray-Balding and Fosgrove pursue him offstage. Scene 2 – The same. A few minutes later In the confusion Fosgrove has knocked out Forster Stand. To cover up the error Gray-Balding and Fosgrove put Stand's unconscious body in a cupboard. He recovers and threatens them with court martial for their incompetence. After further impersonations and misdirected but harmless gunfire it emerges that Grobchick's Atomic Pile Restorer is a carpet shampoo. Gray-Balding and Fosgrove turn Stand's accusation of incompetence back on him, while George and Percy make their escape. Critical reception The critics of the 1950s did not pay a great deal of attention to farce. Reviewing Simple Spymen, The Times said that the play "may be austerely described as rubbish", but conceded that it was skilfully constructed, and well performed. "Nothing daunts Mr. Leo Franklyn. He gets fun out of everything". Rix was praised for "an evening of good, versatile clowning". In The Manchester Guardian, Philip Hope-Wallace declared the play