Alfie has been diagnosed with cancer, now walks with a stick and has received chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Worn out by the cancer treatments, Alfie wants to refuse any more treatment.  Julie doesn’t want to let him go. Julie has ideas to make his final days memorable and fulfilling but Alfie is worn out and receives her ideas negatively.  He talks about going into the hospice and never having any visitors.

David Eldridge writes some of the very best dialogue as we empathise with Julie and feel some of Alfie’s despair.  They look back on life events fleshing out their characters. Rachel O’Riordan directs naturally.  Gary McCann’s set is the spacious kitchen/living room in the affluent London suburb of Crouch End.  The smashed teapot has a significance going back to Middle.

Julie wants to branch away from detective fiction and write about something closer to home but Alfie isn’t happy with this idea, being the subject of her writing. Alfie is selecting music for his “service”, playing his vinyl mementoes. This is a poignant play about difficult feelings.