Birds of a Feather, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. On until Saturday March 2. Box office: 024 7655 3055.

If you loved Birds of a Feather on the BBC, this is a topical update starring the usual team of sisters Sharon (Pauline Quirke), Tracey (Linda Robson) and sex-mad ex-neighbour Dorien (Lesley Joseph.) It’s still daisy fresh, a bit plot-light but it doesn’t matter - the magic still exists and the first night audience rewarded the cast with a well-deserved standing ovation.

The plot involves the reawakening of the friendship between the sisters and Dorien (stll glamorous) now divorced and owner of a retirement home, ‘Cherish’ for the well–off elderly, where the Polish staff has left en masse. Sharon and Tracey join as admin and cook. The untimely demise of Dorien’s favourite well-heeled ‘guest Mr Zimmerman, who has recently changed his will in Dorien’s favour has the family and the Met on her tail.

The subplot concerns Tracey’s son Travis (Charlie Quirke – Pauline’s son) the overprotected child who has been told his father is dead but in reality recently released from ‘Her Majesty’s Holiday Camp’.

There are some moments of pure magic – too many to recount - but for a flavour Dorien calls Sharon the ‘Poster girl for the British underclass’ which she takes as a complement! All in all, this is a corker, well worth seeing and full of laughter.

Jane Howard