Twenty to One was a British comedy play first performed in 1935. The play was a farce set around the world of horseracing. Bill Snibson (Lupino Lane

Lupino Lane

Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...

), a bookmaker

Bookmaker

A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...

, joins an anti-gambling

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 organisation in a fit of guilt. The play ran for other four hundred performances at the Coliseum Theatre

Coliseum Theatre

The London Coliseum is an opera house and major performing venue on St. Martin's Lane, central London. It is one of London's largest and best equipped theatres and opened in 1904, designed by theatrical architect Frank Matcham , for impresario Oswald Stoll...

 in the West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

. Combined with provincial tours it ran for over a thousand shows. It was written by Louis Arthur Rose. The music was composed by Billy Mayerl

Billy Mayerl

Billy Joseph Mayerl , was an English pianist and composer who built a career in music hall and musical theatre and became an acknowledged master of light music. Best known for his syncopated novelty piano solos, he wrote over 300 piano pieces, many of which were named after flowers and trees,...

.

The lead character of Bill Snibson was such a success, that he was revived in 1937 for another play Me and My Girl

Me and My Girl

Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....

. This proved to be an even greater hit with its well-known song The Lambeth Walk

The Lambeth Walk

"The Lambeth Walk" is a song from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl . The song takes its name from a local street Lambeth Walk once notable for its street market and working class culture in Lambeth, an area of London.The tune gave its name to a Cockney dance first made popular in 1937 by Lupino Lane...

. It was adapted into a film

The Lambeth Walk (film)

The Lambeth Walk is a 1939 British musical comedy film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Lupino Lane, Sally Gray and Seymour Hicks. It was an adaptation of the 1937 musical Me and My Girl. The film takes its title from the play's best known song The Lambeth Walk...

in 1939.