STAGE REVIEW: Driving Miss Daisy - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Monday, November 20, to Saturday, November 25, 2017.

EVERY so often a little gem of play comes along or returns to the theatrical roundabout, and this is a absolute diamond!

Enjoying its 30th anniversary revival tour, Alfred Uhry’s touching comedy-drama has known nothing but success from the very first performance at the tiny Studio Theatre off Broadway.

Uhry, of German-Jewish stock, based it on his own family history and in particular his stern schoolteacher grandmother, Lena Fox, who would send back letters he had written to her corrected.

One particular story that passed into family-folklore became the catalyst for what was eventually his global hit.

A touch delicate at times, it is certainly endearing, if not immensely uplifting - and is also a warm and tender tale of the human spirit and relationships which unfolds in the years immediately after the Second World War.

There’s definitely a certain intimacy around the ‘odd-couple’ of a Jewish widow, Daisy Werthan, and the man who comes to work for her, Hoke Colburn, who is an illiterate black chauffeur. But he’s still quite a sharp cookie when it comes to salary negotiations!

Sian Phillips and Derek Griffiths provide a splendid double act - warmth, wit, wry and wily.

Phillips, now a legendary name in the world of entertainment, and Griffiths, are special class - she has Daisy both cantankerous and caring in equal measure, and he hits the spot too with his care, compassion and soft humour.

The beginning of their special bond comes when Daisy’s son, Boolie, convinces his mother - with some considerable degree of difficulty - that after plunging down a ravine and demolishing part of a garage with her car she’ll never get insured and needs someone to drive for her. Boolie, by the way, is splendidly played with outstanding ease by Teddy Kempner.

There’s resentment initially at his decision but with the passing of time comes a special relationship for Daisy and Hoke.

Several scenes are delightfully simple but there is the odd dark moment for both as they are each victims of the time with American bigotry of anti-Semitism or racial divides.

After more than two decades, as they have grown older together, the pair obviously treasure each other in their own way and there is a truly delightful yet poignant finale when Daisy, by now frail and looked after in a care home, tells Hoke, when he visits with her son, that he is ‘her best friend’.

A moving moment in a simple yet heart-warming story which surely deserves more than a half-full theatre.