During the 1926 general strike John Reith, general manager of the BBC, was faced with how the recently founded broadcasting body should handle the events of the general strike. He was faced with a Government led by Stanley Baldwin - Winston Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer - which wished to control who could appear and what was said, to use it as a state broadcaster. Reith was deeply religious, a son of the manse, immensely tall - not here though - and also had a past as a younger man which provides the second strand to this story of these eight days that shook the country. The clashes with Baldwin, beautifully played by Haydn Gwynn, all suave and smooth self assurance, and Churchill, a pugnacious Adrian Scarborough, who leads the battle to take over the BBC as he edits the only newspaper, a Government publication, are hugely entertaining. The battle over just what the BBC is for still rages. There is plenty to think about - Ramsay MacDonald, the leader of the Opposition, is not allowed to broadcast, nor are the trade union leaders, not even the Archbishop of Canterbury - and yesterday and today seem not too far apart. Maybe Stephen Campbell Moore as Reith is rather less tall and terrifying than the reality - Reith was 6ft 6ins - and he doesn't sound as if he came from a free church manse but he creates an impressive and plausible picture of a man fighting for freedom for the organisation he runs to report the news, He does have his victories. There is also a sub plot as Reith is believed to have had a homosexual relationship with a younger man, Charlie Bowser, played by Luke Newberry, and when Charlie announces he is thinking of marrying her it is Reith who marries her. It is really for another play but it adds a whole other level to what we are told about Reith who seems to have been capable of being as ruthless in his private life as his public. Kay Rudd has set it all moving against a fascinating set which uses a scaffold on which items used by sound engineers to create effects for the broadcasters are set out - there is fun at the way the politicians cannot grasp the technique of using a microphone and shout into it, at the awful programmes the BBC was putting out, and the supporting cast rise to the challenges of multiple roles brilliantly. Rudd has taken all this mix of material and turned it into an evening that holds the attention throughout. As for Gwynne, as well as justifying her casting as a man she does a brief but glorious turn as Beatrice Lillie broadcasting a song everyone agrees is not one of her best. It leaves one thinking, among other things, that it was the second world war that saved Churchill from being remembered as disastrous a politician as Boris Johnson has been, except that he did respect Parliament. But one thing - nobody sounds like people of the 1920s did. We know how because the BBC has the archives.

Isabel Shields - Kitty Archer; John reith - Stephen Camobell Moore; Archbishop of Cantrbury - Ravin J Ganatra; Stanley Baldwin - Haydn Gwynne; Muriel Reith - Miriam Haque; Ernest Bevin - Kevin McMonagle; Charlie Bowser - Luke Newbeery; Speaker of the Commons - Seb Philpott; Arthur Pugh - Alliott Rennie; Clemmie Churchill - Laura Rogers; Peter Ecjersley - Shubham Saraf; Winston Churchill - Adrian Scarborough.

Director _ KatyRudd; Designer - Laura Hopkins; Sound Designer - Ben and Max ingham; Lighting Designer - Howard Hudson; Movement Director - Scott Graham; Composer - Gary Vershon; Video Designer and Animator - Andrzj Goulding; production photographs - Manuel Harlan.