So, just how do you breathe new life into an accepted classic? You give it a contemporary setting but retain its authenticity by making it a ‘play within a play’. Then, give it the most star-studded cast you can possibly manage and watch the tickets sell themselves.

The production which is currently enjoying a run at Bath’s Theatre Royal certainly has more recognised names on the bill than any other in recent years: Nigel Havers, Martin Jarvis, Sian Phillips, Cherie Lunghi, Rosalind Ayres, Niall Buggy and Christine Kavanagh are all experienced enough actors to be a draw in their own right. But none are playing ‘conventional’ roles, as this production, written by Simon Brett and directed by Lucy Bailey, has each of them cast as a member of ‘The Bunbury Players’, an am-dram company who are doing a read-through of ‘The Importance…’ At first, I was slightly uneasy at the thought of Wilde’s masterpiece being messed about with but this adaptation really does work, certainly in the second half once the players are well and truly in their stride. If anything, it allows the cast to ‘ham it up a bit’, emphasising more than ever Wilde’s mockery of the class system.

Havers and Jarvis certainly stand out, but then they should be well practiced, reprising the very same roles that they played together in a different production, back in 1982. But then all the actors were faultless, as indeed they should be, with all those years on stage between them.

The set was pretty and well designed, the lighting immaculate, and the costumes perfect, so once we were really up and running with ‘The Importance…’ the beauty and intelligence of Wilde’s observations on society – which are still as appropriate today as they ever were - were really allowed to shine through.

And who wouldn’t want to go to see ‘The Importance…’ without leaving with a few of Wilde’s ‘Bon Mots’ still ringing in the ears?

The Importance of Being Earnest is at the Theatre Royal, Bath, until Sunday, September 27.