Matthew Bourne is renowned for choreographing colourful, spicy modern dance with a touch of spice, from Swan Lake to Nutcracker! His latest offering, The Midnight Bell, doesn’t disappoint, danced with great fluidity to an engaging musical score.

Set in the 1930s and based on the stories by Patrick Hamilton – best known for Rope, memorably filmed by Hitchcock – the title refers to the dimly-lit London boozer depicted on stage. Its lonely drinkers are all looking for love in different ways: the boyish waiter, whose innocent love for a pretty prostitute seems doomed; the waitress secretly in love with her colleague, yet unable to bat off the attentions of an older customer; spinster Miss Roach and her Lord Lucan-esque cad of a suitor; men forced by law to hide their sexuality.

Each in turn combines sinuous movements with inner monologues, as the dancers lip-synch to 1930s classics by the Gershwins and Irving Berlin, cleverly interspersed with an original score by Terry Davies.

The cast is a mix of old hands and new talent, from Michela Meazza reprising her award-winning depiction of Miss Roach, to Hannah Kremer, luminous as the call-girl who loathes her job but can’t quite escape it.

Special mention must go to Alan Vincent in the role of “tortured romantic” George Harvey Bone, an older man cruelly strung along by a younger woman. It was refreshing to see an authentic middle-aged man moving with such ease.

However, the pathos was hard to watch at times; the score reflected the character’s torment to such a degree, my mother-in-law (MIL) removed her hearing aids, and I wouldn’t have liked to be on the front row when Bone had his highly realistic “seizure”.

The mood was sombre, the message clear: sex doesn’t necessarily mean intimacy. “It was beautifully danced, but rather depressing,” opined MIL. Even so, I was glad to be unhappy.