William Douglas-Home’s sparkling Fifties comedy about the trials and tribulations of ‘coming out,’ in the old fashioned sense, is a gem.

Jane Asher and Clive Francis are perfectly paired as Sheila and Jimmy Broadbent, parents of the eponymous debutante, Jane, played by Louise Calf.

Asher is frantically maternal, or pushy, desperate for her daughter to shine at the endless round of balls with which the poor girl is bored rigid.

Francis is not only bored, he is eyeing the mounting cost with horror. But he is also a gentle father, on his daughter’s side, and there’s an equally good father-daughter rapport.

Belinda Lang, who also directs, plays the part of the bitchy rival mother with relish.

But the scene stealers are the men.

Ed Cooper Clarke is the tall, dark, handsome and charming David Hoylake-Johnston, rumoured to be a bit of a cad.

He and Francis have a wonderful scene in which for the benefit of Mrs Broadbent they pretend to fight.

They very subtly take the audience into their conspiracy.

Jane’s other suitor is David Bulloch, a masterpiece of character creation by actor Alex Felton. He’s a military product, his stiff upper lip having infected his whole body.

He has three subjects of conversation, Goodwood, Ascot and Wimbledon and how to get to them by road.

And yet you feel he has no awareness of his own gaucheness.

The comedy is in the untangling of the truth from the rumours about the young men, and clever Mr Broadbent’s manipulation of his wife’s snobbery to achieve the desired result.

The dresses are beautiful and almost make you long for the return of the debutante era.