The name of Donald Churchill, author of this play, was often to be found among the TV schedules, not least in the very variable category of comedy-drama series.

It comes as no great surprise, then, that for much of its duration, Moments Of Weakness feels as if it might have escaped its rightful box to masquerade as a stage piece.

It has enough material, for example, to fill a quick-paced romp such as an episode of My Family.

It works so successfully due to the skill and experience of Gwen Taylor and Michael Jayston, who manage to inject a fair degree of theatrical interest.

As Audrey and Tony, they have had a long and materially successful marriage.

Now divorced, they meet at their country cottage to divide their spoils before going their separate ways.

Tony has married Stella in order to give the baby she expects a name.

Audrey is about to marry Brian, very much on the rebound.

Interestingly, these two off-stage characters are more fleshed-out than the daughter, Lucy.

She is played competently by Clare Buckfield but serves little purpose beyond stirring the plot and instigating some good gags about dress sense.

It seems a bit of a cop-out on Churchill's part that he wasn't brave enough to keep the play as a two-hander.

The story turns, fairly predictably, on the fact that Audrey and Tony are the kind of married couple who will never be able to do without each other.

As they wittily review where it all went wrong, the catalogue of those various eponymous moments that drove them apart is a source of plenty of sit-com-like humour.

A false touch intrudes when Audrey berates Tony for sacrificing his career as a campaigning documentary-maker to sell out to the commercial-making industry.

The Fish Finger and deodorant jokes are one thing but this attempt at gravitas is way out of place in the context of the play's overall lightness. The outcome is never in much doubt.

Quite how it would be effected, however, did keep the first-night audience interested beyond the additional drama of an enforced theatre evacuation due to a false fire alarm.

Moment Of Weakness is also showing at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing from Monday, March 10 - Saturday, March 15. Call 01903 206206 to reserve tickets.

Review by David Wilkins, features@theargus.co.uk