Larky

As our happy-go-lucky chief was out in what may be termed a larky state of mind, and had nothing particular to do, he accepted the invitation. ❋ Francis B. Pearson (1859)

Samantha Womack, who exited EastEnders after its contentious baby-snatching storyline, is larky in voice and sparky in demeanour but and this can't have been due to her broken toe has a disconcerting habit of swinging her arms up and down as if trying to take off. ❋ Unknown (2011)

That's Robert Wagner, who enjoyed his biggest success on Hart To Hart and It Takes A Thief, this larky series about an urbane jewel thief recruited to steal for the government when they're not free to act. ❋ Michael Giltz (2011)

Webb's tone throughout Food Britannia is standard-issue larky, with gallant jokes about not asking lady producers their ages and the effect that hard toffee can have on wobbly teeth. ❋ Unknown (2011)

A bit larky but not larky enough, I'm afraid, though again Dearden drops in some great tidbits, like the casual approach to a gay member of the team. ❋ Michael Giltz (2011)

"Here you'll find larky, quirky things," said Ms. Daniel. ❋ Marshall Heyman (2011)

Others have the larky feel of Maverick, the great comic western starring James Garner. ❋ Michael Giltz (2010)

Based on the Lope de Vega play Fuenteovejuna, about a Spanish village that rises against its tyrannical overlord, the ballet harks back to old peasant ballets from the previous century: cue larky drinking dances, cute lovers and comic village elders that could have come straight out of Coppélia or Don Quixote. ❋ Unknown (2010)

And this was when he was in his ‘larky’ stage as far as the press was concerned. ❋ JAMES S. HIRSCH (2010)

He appeared in the final Old Vic season (before the new National theatre was ensconced there in 1963), forging a friendship with the actor Vernon Dobtcheff, who remembers "an astringent mentor, an elegant guru and a larky friend" – one who would sail diagonally through the fierce traffic on the Waterloo Road with a cry of: "They wouldn't dare: they couldn't face the litigation." ❋ Unknown (2010)

Somehow the hats and the shoes, the gloves and the bags, the business-like suits and the spangled ballgowns don't add up into the woman, who was – at least until the protocol of the claustrophobic little principality stifled her – so dangerously larky and so frankly erotic. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Alistair Beaton's script is not so much a play as a series of sketches; Anthony Neilson's production is remorselessly larky, with lots of arch posturing and yo-ho-ho shantying. ❋ Unknown (2010)

For reasons that help the writing of this column, the soundtrack to this novel/hallucination would be best supplied by Prince, himself currently mucking around with reality and his possible mysterious connection to it in ways that mix up the Ballardian with splashes of obsessive Gaga narcissism, madcap McLuhan theorising, larky Russell Brand lunacy and teasing Dylan masking. ❋ Unknown (2010)

The production, directed by Jude Kelly, features some virtuoso performances: the Venezuelan drummers are thrilling, delivering a deep, earthy and larky counterpoint to the Spanish music; dancers Ramón Martinéz, Angel Muñoz and Charo Espino cover the gamut of style and expression; and Peña is still master of his form, extending from limpid classicism to raw emotion. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Avoiding the earnestness of, say, Michael Mann's The Insider, Informant sidewinds its attack on corporate malfeasance using a larky score by Marvin Hamlisch and the hero's oddball voice-overs about everything from designer ties to the black noses of polar bears. ❋ Unknown (2009)