BARNARD Castle-born actor Glenn Hugill was a bundle of nerves as his directorial debut brings four weeks of summer rep to a close. He needn't have worried. Success was ensured by the safe- as-houses casting of Michael Tudor Barnes and Diana Davies as the leads in Bill Naughton's glorious glimpse of working class family life. Hugill leans towards the 1969 film version of Naughton's familiar stageplay using single spotlights in scene fade-out to highlight the growing pressure on domineering head of the house Rafe Crompton to accept his four children have minds of their own. Davies dithers delightfully as Daisy, the wife who finally gains an insight into her husband's inner devils after 30 years of marriage. The plot of the youngest daughter Hilda (Kate Farrah) refusing to eat a herring, and being served with it at every meal afterwards, is treated as a side issue. This examination of post-war workhouse-fearing Britain has older members of the audience repeating the Koran of the time "Never a borrower or a lender be". Fear of debt, pride and dignity drives this drama taking place in a Bolton terrace in the 1960s .

A profusion of nicely-judged supporting performances and the clever inclusion of the family cat (Mansell from Darlington) ensures this generation gap gem remains refreshingly entertaining.