Mrs Laura Henderson, a sixty-something, upper class widow is facing a crisis.

Not knowing what to do with her time and money, the old fashioned (not to mention right wing) socialite receives advice from her friend, Thelma Barlow’s Lady Conway, who informs her of the various pleasures of being a widow.

Taking Lady Conway's advice to 'buy things' a little too literally, the bullish Mrs Henderson ploughs her money into a small, defunct theatre in the heart of the West End.

Assistance arrives in the form of Vivian Van Damm, a renowned theatre manager whose bullish nature and skin-thickness are matched only by his new employer.

As the pair put together the theatre and the acts that it is to house, the bickering couple verbally spar like Abbott and Costello. But from their relationship come the first tentative steps of Soho into the world of naked bosoms.

After becoming the first revue theatre to offer all-day showings, their next claim to fame was seeking permission to expose the female form on stage. Something they succeeded in accomplishing after Mrs Henderson pulled her social strings.

Juxtaposed against the backdrop of a pre-war (and then blitzed) London, Mrs Henderson Presents is prone to the occasional bouts of sentimentality. Not that it’s a bad thing.

Hoskins, replete with a convincing accent, is in fine form as the well spoken Van Damm, while Dench positively munches on the scenery around her – but never for a moment losing her ability to bring the audience to the verge of tears via the plight of a bullish, yet utterly vulnerable character.

A sparkling script that finds some remarkable events from the period to plunder is reeled off by a strong cast that even includes TV pop 'heart throb' Will Young, whose assured performance betrays his bubblegum TV roots.

While clearly in confident form, it is by no means director Stephen Frears' strongest effort to date, but probably as touching and indeed interesting as anything that he's done before. The tale of Mrs Henderson has been well realised and perfectly staged.

Rich Phippen