He may not be a household name but, 50 years after his death, Harry Beck still helps millions of people find their way home – and all around London, too. The tortuous creation of the diagrammatic tube map, first conceived by Beck in 1931, is the subject of Andy Burden’s fond bio-drama staged in London Transport Museum’s Cubic theatre, where the seats are upholstered in a moquette familiar from the tube.
As played by Simon Snashall, Beck is a pun-loving, Pooterish figure in spectacles and sweater vest. He is introduced in his retirement in the New Forest, where he and his wife, Nora (Ashley Christmas), tell their story over cups of tea. It is presented as very much a joint effort as Nora advocates a sense of “graphic grace” and colour in the design and encourages Harry to elucidate the interchanges between lines when he endeavours to represent the chaotic spaghetti network of London Underground, previously depicted sprawling overground on a topographical map of the capital.
