The initial scenes are full of the small talk that strangers make on first meeting but these lines are being delivered by two masterly actors, one of whom acquired a young fan base by starring in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Both men are lonely and pleased to have each other’s company. Percy explains that after a long relationship with Dennis, one day a decade ago he changed the locks on his flat. Dennis now lives two streets away from Percy. As both men share their thoughts on their major life relationship, Percy defines it as ”Too long” and Frank his marriage, as ”Not long enough”.

The two men have distinctive characters, Percy playful, jokey and less sensitive than Frank where Allam shows more emotion and empathy. There is some fairly smutty talk from McKellen’s character to do with the length of his tongue and deep throating a cucumber but these lines, being delivered by a knight of the realm adds to the audience hilarity.

I was really surprised to see that no-one is credited with Intimacy Direction in this production. The men go tie shopping in Marks and Spencer for a lecture Percy has to deliver on his climate change theories and then ends up in Percy’s flat.