Russell Grant, best known as an astrologer, takes up his first serious stage role since leaving the theatre in 1978 in this new prize-winning play.

Mr Grant's thespian credentials are impeccable as he is a direct descendent of Sir Henry Irving.

This one act play was described by Adrian Washbourne on Radio 4 as a gripping, vicious, pocket-sized tragedy.

Co-starring as Lance is the writer of the play, Paul Doust, who won the London Author's Prize with it.

Grant plays the bitter and foul-mouthed Irwin Buller Puleston-May, known as Maisie, who is fighting his property developer son-in-law for control of his dying wife's estate.

This is a play about avarice and selfishness and the core of the story is whether or not to sell a property.

Although the setting is probably Wanstead, it could just as easily have been Cardiff as Grant plays the part with a heavy South Wales accent.

His portrayal is more that of a pathetic buffoon than of an angry, bitter man and his rather good bits of "business" raised a titter from time to time.

Foul-mouthed he certainly is, although I have heard worse on the top deck of the 5B bus when the schools turn out.

The writer's skill - and probably what won him the prize - is his ability to write realistically incoherent dialogue. The bulk of this dialogue falls to Maisie and Grant delivers it manfully with a little help from the prompter.

It takes some time before we grasp that Maisie's wife (Lance's mother) is seriously ill in an expensive nursing home.

It also turns out Lance is married to a lady of unspecified ethnicity who is the butt of Maisie's racist remarks.

Lance's big moment comes when he can stand the racist jibes no longer and his angry outburst is very effective.

At other times, his character is used to explain the story.

The direction is by EastEnders director, Philip Grout, who must have felt at home in this angry, bitter tale which is mercifully short at 50 minutes.