To see Betty Marsden in full sail as Mrs Hardcastle, absurdly overdressed, booming with overbearing confidence but at the same time showing us the vulnerability of a woman whose best years are fast receding into the distance, is to make one regret the lack of recent opportunities available to actresses with such a firm grasp of comedy technique. Anthony Sharp, as her husband, gives a splendid study of a man whose natural good humour is strained to its utmost by the behaviour of Young Marlow, under the impression that Hardcastle’s home is an inn.

But if these players capture our attention most by their assurance and experience, there is also much to admire in the performance of the younger actors. Tracey Ullman is an actress of potentially rich accomplishment as Kate, not one of your conventional beauties but one who can blend delicacy and broadness in a way that marks her out for stardom. Ron Cook, resembling a younger and shorter Roy Hudd with here and there a touch of Norman Wisdom in his shambling, rolling gait, is a Tony Lumpkin with vigour and zest, a mixture of the hardened prankster and the wayward child.

Nigel Terry and Hugh Fraser are contrasted nicely as Young Marlow and Hastings, with Karen Archer as a serene Constance and Richard Caldicot arrives in the last act to add his own charm as Sir Charles Marlow to a comedy which, further enriched by Peter Hartwell’s settings, makes ideal entertainment for a summer evening.