Well, let’s start with something easy. There is no question in my mind as to the best theatre of the year; that has to go to the Ustinov in Bath. The plays, both imported and produced have been of the highest quality and that applies to the acting, the writing, the direction and the sets. Let’s hope that under artistic director, Laurence Boswell, the continued mix of home-grown works with his excellent selection of international plays maintains the standard.

Vying for best play is the Ustinov’s The Father and the Tobacco Factory’s Private Peaceful, with The Father just shading it perhaps on the grounds that Private Peaceful is a revival.

Both the previous two plays produce contenders for ‘best actor’ in Kenneth Cranham (The Father) and William Troughton (Private Peaceful), supplemented by Tanya Moodie in Intimate Apparel and Madeleine Worrall for Jane Eyre. With these four I find myself torn: Cranham had depth, Troughton breadth, Moodie sensitivity and Worral, energy and vivacity. Preferences here are likely to be invidious, but given that his was the predicament likely to affect any one of us, Kenneth Cranham shades it for having moved me just that little bit more for his remarkable performance of a man sliding into dementia.

‘Best director’ is tricky because it is not always clear as to what is down to the actors and writer (or designer and composer). Bad directing is easier to spot. When the actors do not appear to be relating off-script (i.e. when there is no subtext apparent) you know the director is not doing their job. Good directors on the other hand, bring something extra to the script. The aforementioned, Laurence Boswell is in the frame for having brought out the subtleties of relationship in Intimate Apparel. However, for two marvellous feats of imaginative theatre-making and script devising in Jane Eyre and 101 Dalmations, Sally Cookson gets the nod for sheer theatrical brilliance and I for one look forward to her next project whatever it may be.