The prolific Loughton Amateur Dramatic Society’s latest production, Hobson’s Choice by Harold Brighouse, is very funny. The play is set in 1880s Salford, Lancashire. The scene is set in Horatio Hobson’s shoe shop.

Mr Hobson, his wife having passed away some years earlier, relies upon his three daughters to run the shop and keep house for him - with little thanks and no pay. After hearing her father’s plans to marry off his two younger daughters, Maggie, the eldest, is declared to be ‘too ripe for marriage’ at 30 years old.

She proves him wrong though, by ensnaring Willy Mossop and a battle of wills ensues which the sharp witted and cunning Maggie was always destined to win.Jean Cooper’s (Maggie) comic diatribes with her father were impeccably timed and very funny. Roger Barker as Maggie’s father, Henry Hobson, convincingly portrayed the patriarch as the proud business man, desperately battling to hold onto his dwindling authority over his daughters.

I loved the character of poor William Mossop. Howard Platt was a joy to watch in the part of the gifted but impoverished shoe mender.