Most of the great plays are about the things that affect everyone whether it is love, loss, betrayal or, as in this case, doing what is right.

Most people who are regular theatregoers will have seen Terence Rattigan's play about a boy accused of stealing a five shillings (25p) postal order a countless number of times.

But I don't think many will have seen a better production than this Theatre Royal Bath Production starring Timothy West which we are seeing in Bath this week prior to its transference up to London's West End.

Timothy West is one of this country's finest actors and you could be forgiven for coming away feeling that he hasn't done anything better than this. Rattigan doesn't give him all the best lines but he gives him many of the funniest and every one of them is a treat in Mr West's capable hands.

The play is set during the first years of the 19th century in a middle class home where a 14 year old cadet from naval college is sent back to his parents having been found guilty, in their absence, of stealing the money.

His father, played by Timothy West, simply asks his son one question: did he do it? When the answer is a categoric no, he sets about trying to clear the boy's name practically bankrupting himself and his family in the process.

We have to decide whether he was right to do it when both his wife, his daughter and his eldest son are all casualties in the fight to clear Ronnie's name.

As Rattigan says in the play, it is the sort of case that would only be taken before court and parliament in this country. It's total Englishness will undoubtedly charm visitors to London's West End this summer.

Christopher Hansford