Picture it: half-term in Bowness-on-Windermere during a heatwave – over-busy and over-hot. Bowness is a charming little town but suffers from being the gateway to England’s largest lake, drawing crowds from everywhere. We dropped off our bags at our lodgings – the pretty inn called Churchills – and headed down to the water for a gander. The foreshore was drowning in day trippers, and RAF fighters thundered low over the lake. For a moment we thought mad Vlad had finally lost the plot. Eventually we happened upon a lakeside watering hole to cool down and watch the dogfights.

Still, we weren’t in Bowness for the surly bar staff and so-so service. It was ‘Fourteen Again’ we came to see, Tom MacRae’s brand-new musical based around the songs of the late, great Victoria Wood. As we took our seats at the intimate, recently renamed Victoria Wood Theatre, expectations were sky high. Were they met? Oh yes, met and then some.

The time-travelling tale of friendship, endurance, regret, redemption and rebirth is a very human tragi-comedy centred around the life and times of old besties, Peggy and Lou, which gift-wraps Victoria Wood’s witty ditties in pathos and warmth. Sally Ann Triplett (as Peggy) and Ria Jones (as Lou) are simply superb. There were tears all round.

If only I was fourteen again.