I hate to sound like a grumpy old man, but I have just spent ten minutes wondering whether there shouldn’t be a comma or hyphen in the title of the new production from TV’s monstrous regiment. Chin Up Britain just doesn’t look right, or perhaps I am missing an in-joke inspired by the writings of Lynne Truss.

This is what happens, you see, when you sit through an evening of Olympic-class whingeing about the state of the world, the collapse of good manners and the general ineptitude of men. Yes, you turn into a critic. Thankfully, the show — scripted by Jenny Eclair and Judith Holder — contains enough sharp jokes to dispel the feeling that you are being harangued at a particularly noisy hen night.

As Eclair gets a writing credit, it is only fair that she ends up with most of the best lines. The jollity tends to lose some of its fizz, in fact, whenever she steps out of the spotlight. Susie Blake and Wendi Peters are good troupers, but both are, in the end, actresses delivering their lines. Eclair, on the other hand, is clearly experiencing a midlife crisis, a nervous breakdown, the menopause and a sugar rush all at once. Oh, and her knickers have probably sprung a leak as well.

Her swearing and her urge to rub indelicate parts of her anatomy prompted a few gasps from the more staid members of the audience. (She even shattered the ultimate taboo with a filthy but perfectly timed throwaway line about Middle England’s favourite son, Tim Henman.) Given the show’s call for women’s need to revive some of the sturdy values of our Finest Hour, the raunchiness has genuine shock value. We enter a world where the sisters are capable of sobbing over Brief Encounter one minute, and then sounding off like Readers’ Wives. No wonder husbands feel confused sometimes.

Fortunately, the comic routines about the shortcomings of the second sex (men, I mean) are laced with affection. Father Time is the real enemy. Some of the meditations on mortality and the fading of desire could almost have been lifted from a Beckett play.

Dates: www.grumpyoldwomenlive.com

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