★★☆☆☆ Back in the day, before well-known actors were ‘celebrities’, a producer with a bit of clout could persuade a star to risk their reputation on the road for six weeks. Prior to the rise in popularity and ubiquity of TV the summer tour would be the only means whereby the provinces could get a good gawp at the folk they had read about or perhaps seen at the movies.

★★★★☆ From its first English run some twenty years ago the play has attracted strong casts; each character is allowed to run the gamut from indignation to pathos with a good dose of self-indulgent anger and self-pity on offer. The present cast of well-seasoned and likeable favourites, Messrs. Tompkinson, Havers and Lawson all rise to the challenge with nicely delineated characters.