The band played ceaselessly. Even when the other instruments were resting the pianist kept up his monotonous vamping, with a dreary furbelow for embellishment here and there, to which some few of the dancers continued to shuffle round the floor.

Mickleover has a good timber-framed house tucked away behind a still rural-looking village square, and Chellaston, besides some buildings on the main street and one old pub that has been modernised and re-oldified, has the memory of its former importance in the alabaster industry.

The first-night audience, yes. The first-night reviewers, not exactly. The notices have so far been mixed, only The Financial Times having delivered itself of an unequivocal rave.

That dog is about to bite!